


Lizbob Supernatural Watching Notes (season 12)

by lizbobjones



Series: Lizbob Supernatural Watching Notes [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Meta Essay, Non Fiction, archived from elizabethrobertajones blog, watching notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 02:53:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 157,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16864825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizbobjones/pseuds/lizbobjones





	1. 12x01

_ouch_

Oh god it’s 6am   
/miserable giant Teddybear “Why am I heeere” gif

-

I should have rewatched all of season 11 somehow last night. I’m down in season 4 and to me “angels” are a new and confusing concept. This montage juuust about got me up to speed with all the God and Amara and Lucifer nonsense but also reminded me that season 11 was SUPER WEIRD. There didn’t seem to be any narrative to the montage except recapping the season to my 6am eyes, and it reminds us about Dean x Amara as a kiss but not aaany of the nuance there. >.>  
I remain pretty much unable to descipher lyrics to songs I don’t know but I think they picked this one for a visual pun about the soul bomb in Dean because that’s the only  bit I got clear  
I like that the NOW and THEN title cards are red because that means the main title card is red, but having not seen it yet, it looks suspiciously like a red version of the title card from last year, with a MoL sign in the background. Which is cool because it could be an old leather book cover or something?

-

Okay I’m gonna watch the actual show…. here I goooooo

-

I love Dean’s “AAAH” expression riiight as Mary catches his hand and yanks him over 

I have to ask, having never watched this show, EVER, with headphones until this morning, lurking in a small holiday cottage before it’s even light outside and trying to be quiet, is Dean’s voice always that scratchy?

-

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Your name is Mary Sandra Campbell” DEAN I LOVE YOU (also Dabb for writin’ it) - not using Winchester to identify her. Also giving us her middle name like yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah SECRET INFO FOR SEASON 12 VIEWERS ONLY

(Also all that stuff about her meeting John, I guess… What a fascinating info dump, and Dean’s choice to go this route - it conjures up the idea that John told Dean all that in a rare happy moment where he felt like talking about Mary, OR Dean in one of his timetravel moments asked them and is passing it off as something John would have told him as a parent and not something he learned from them in a kind of innocence… As kids the line we have is “Don’t talk about Mom, ever” which implies a John rule to me - he did occasionally swing around to be friendly and nostalgic like in the “I spent it on ammo” conversation but that to me felt a lot like it was rooted in the regret John was feeling towards the end of his life/their journey, since Sam’s impression of him was being SO harsh and unapproachable that I’ve never known if that moment showed the good days or John opening up and letting Sam in for the first time in ever. On the other hand Dean as a young adult was with John pretty much the whole time so waaay more than Sam he’s always been privileged to know the family history (e.g. remembering the fire and Mary, being the timetraveller in 4x03 etc) so using him as a sort of chronicler of their family history, remembering the Family Story as pertaining to their nuclear family unit and its core love story (however tainted that is by cupids) makes sense however you shake it just because of the way he’s always been used in relation to the family history stuff, so if SAM spouted this story I’d assume he learned it from Dean, while with Dean I have a ton of options to speculate it… Using Dean as the voicepiece to this is very clever, and I get the feeling I may end up coming back here a lot if there’s a strong theme on storytelling this year especially connected to family history, which, as a guess at a season 12 theme, feels sort of like “duh” to me until proven otherwise :P)

-

I like to think there’s only a couple of episodes that have ever made me cry but I’m really regretting going on holiday and taking only the miniature version of my big squishy stuffed aardvark I normally bury my face in when sad stuff happens to characters I like because that hug… aaaaaah. My eyes are.. damp…

-

Title card is the MoL thing, specifically with a blood splatter and lighting up as a banishing symbol which is FASCINATING and I hope someone’s going over this symbolism somewhere or other, especially with the fact it’s family history again (On John’s side) but violent and being used as a banishing sigil suggests like, rejecting the legacy or something at this point…   
but it’s mimicking for now Sam and Cas’s final part of season 11 and specifically Toni’s actions so I’m hoping sticking her right at the heart of the season in the same way Amara was in season 11.

-

thinking of her, we cut not to Sam but to Cas next, possibly because that has the most immediate timeline consequence as he’s on the other end of a supposedly instant banishing and we’re only catching up with Mary first for emotional significance… Sam can wait.

There’s another song playing in the cab and I can’t make out a word of it so I hope someone’s on that

-

I’m just saying if they go back to investigating MotW too quicky, Mary’s going to drag them off to investigate the weird alien abduction three hours away where some guy swears blind an alien stole his truck.

-

(Three hours away. *narrows eyes at Dabb*)

-

cut to: dawn. Dean and Mary still talking with apparently only a small shift in time and place

the sun may still be a little confused, having only just set but it has had a very stressful day itself so I would understand if it rose too quickly while it was getting back on its feet

-

“Your memory got wiped, sooo…” “…we don’t have to worry about that plot hole”

-

*sound of every gifmaker bursting into tears when the shot of Dean putting his arm around Mary and leading her away with “let’s go home” has “Executive Producers - BRAD BUCKNER AND EUGENIE ROSS-LEMING” emblazoned over the entire scene

fuck those guys

-

This vet is being woken up at 6 (#relatable) and I already feel like he doesn’t deserve this just because of that fact

I guess the dog imagery is resoundingly being applied to Sam now if Toni brings him to a vet.

I hope Cas won’t menace this bloke too much later.

-

I either recognise Crowley’s minions from earlier in the show or the generic casting for these dudes is getting somewhat predictable :P I was just like “yep these are demons” as soon as the little guy came through the door.

Well I say “Crowley’s minions”, they’re now being dumbasses in the service of Lucifer instead of Crowley, which is really the old order of things. Crowley needs to learn to let Hell go.

-

Is this going to be a whodunnit with who smited this bloke and why the demons are collecting him, or is this a “it was Lucifer” leap we’re supposed to make? This scene spent a bit too much time being silly and not enough explaining anything :P

-

It’s not totally clear we’re not at the vet’s any more or if Toni moved Sam off the property - this place looks like an abandoned barn and farmhouse but there was one of those in the background when they dropped Sam off at the vet’s.

she also tells him to “be a good boy” because subtle

-

“where are we?” - “just wondering how far I’m going to have to walk…” honey, you’re in a Dabb episode, you’ll be fine

although I don’t think he’s getting out of this one

-

Toni is shrill in a way which makes me hear the sound my own voice getting too loud so I’m inclined to dislike her. She does have a nice pen and notebook though.

-

Honestly, Toni, Sam told you he’d been tortured by the devil just in casual conversation. You need to realise the Winchesters have no sense of “normal” any more and if you keep goading him he’ll tell you everything without you having to hurt him just because he won’t think it’s weird to say God made him pancakes or he knows how to get to Hell from Purgatory  or that nothing can be worse than being stuck in a room with Dean and Cas’s UST

-

I have just remembered that Toni thinks it’s “Cassiel” which is going to be amusing when Sam works out how much she DOESN’T know about him. Still waiting for her to not even know there’s a commercially available paperback series which would teach her how to spell Castiel.

-

Dammit Toni, your streaks of blood all over the bunker from Sam got in the way of Mary and Dean recapping where Mary’s new clothes came from

I’m going with snatching them off a washing line, at 7am or whatever this is

-

Dean’s “oh no, Cas” face. It also clearly tells him the blood must be Sam’s because Cas was banished, ergo didn’t get to bleed anywhere if the fight took place without him

-

we never saw how Toni hefted Sam out of the Bunker

-

Ah the old “meet your boyfriend’s mother by confusing them with your brother-in-law’s kidnapper” trope. Never gets old.

I love anything where Cas gets introduced by scary footsteps

-

…. oops I did not mean to make that “MEEP!” and slap my hands over my mouth as if in prayer when Cas went “DEAN” and glomped him but I did it and now I have to live with that squeaking noise

I hope no one else is awake in this cottage… it’s still not even daylight here

-

because my life is not written by Andrew Dabb so the sun takes a normal amount of time to do its shit

-

Mary like *tips head* *blinks*

-

THREE SEASONS LATER: JUSTICE FOR CAS “I don’t have a harp”

(re: 9x02, Andrew Dabb, Dean mouthing off about Cas after the angel fall not having wings and a harp in the opening)

(he doesn’t say he doesn’t have wings despite driving here and we know his wings are all fucked up last time we saw them - painful subject. Also I mis-typed that as “subtext” because tired but tbh not mentioning his wings but we all know they’re there but it’s fucked up and complicated is a perfect example of how subtext works because the bit of the story we care the most about in this example is the one not being mentioned)

Dean talks over Cas to explain “angel” and I can’t catch if Cas was just going to say the same himself or not. He also introduces Mary to Cas, as Mary Winchester, because that’s how Cas will recognise her fastest. He’s doing the introductions himself, but also kind of not giving people a moment for self-identification.

-

Two thirty AM ish

DABB JUST STOP INTRODUCING ELEMENTS OF DISTANCE AND TIME

How did dean and mary lose 2am > dawn, and Cas drive three hours from there to the Bunker after the sun already rose before Mary and Dean even set off for the Bunker, WHERE WERE MARY AND DEAN ANYWAY

-

oh no someone is awake I hope I didn’t shriek them awake

-

Cas and Mary bonding over disliking modern/human technology :P Dean like “welcome to the future” but Mary’s glancing at Cas about this.

-

“hey sweetheart”

I LOVE HOW THAT DIDN’T NEED ANY WORDS

But poor Dean

Cas like “what just happened there” and Dean like “I will show you some other time… once I have managed to brain bleach the thought of my parents doing it in here”

-

tbh it would be a good way to remove the association to overwrite it with a better memory :P

-

the lingering shot of the interior before it gets weird reminds us of Baby (the episode) which reminds me that Sam was the last one to get any action back there, with the suspiciously Mary-coded waitress - family history repeating itself :P 

-

Sam is me with the shower in this place

-

I’m gonna shiver “screw you” at it next time it douses me in ice cold water

-

fucking Brexit commentary FUCK the Men of Letters are Theresa fuckin May

(or Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, who was like how about we let NO ONE into this country)

-

I came here to escape from the misery of Brexit life what are you doing show

-

I’m going to call Toni Theresa and her silent accomplice is now Amber

-

“Make America [weighty pause] safe” so she’s gonna try and find someone to build her Trump’s wall but warded against friggin el chupacabra  
is it finally time, 12 years later, to meet the mystery goat sucker as a probably quite dodgily coded metaphor? (because “vampires are immigrants” goes back to Dracula at least as social commentary on them rocking up here and corrupting our women and stealing our business, and they even showed that guy getting into the country from the Thames so presumably coming via boat, which with the vampire association calls back to Dracula and guess what he’s from a country caught up in all our current events homegrown racism about immigrants as it’s all about Eastern Europe here (aside from the Syrian refugee problem which is different from immigrants when they’re fleeing wartorn countries instead of coming in on work visas not that racists make that differentiation >.>) - I am worried no matter how anti-Trump the big politics, el chupacabra would be a bit of a tightrope to tell without implying Mexicans are goatsucksers…)

-

Anyway, El Chupacabra episode in season 12, you heard it here first unless someeone else has speculated it in the 5 or 6 hours since this aired

-

She leaves Amber to torture Sam - for info about this mysterious hunter heriarchy or something she was asking about. Have they not got ANY intel that hunters in America are basically the loosest organisation ever, basically just knowing each other because common trauma and occasional need for lore checks - they’re a metaphor for cowboys or something. Okay there’s a hunter funeral episode coming up which will bring some of them together so now I worry the MoL will get in on that somehow, but by and large they don’t have central organisation which Toni was literally just telling us… Sam and his attempt to digitise the MoL archive would have been the best shot the hunters would have had at having a general resource and the Winchesters sitting pretty in the bunker would make the best hub for the community to act as the MoL once did but less… you know, *gestures the entire MoL organisation*… aka with Bobby dead and Garth retired she’s literally got the next best thing chained up in this shed

-

his poor feetsies

-

he’s gonna wear flip flops for the next couple of episodes while that heals

-

I don’t feel super sympathetic to anyone in the room but Crowley getting laughed at for saying he’ll kill the devil does amuse me. He’s probably the last one who’ll get to do it now he’s said that. I still kinda want Cas to have a go.

Apparently these dead peeps are burnt out vessels - I guess the burned out eyes are a better route for storytelling than vaporised and the demons going around looking at a fine red mist where the people were but we’ve seen angels explode their vessels when they can’t handle them. I’m reminded of musing on if being in a vessel does heal an angel (re: gadreel) and vessel durability affects angel’s strength (re: Nick being the second rate vessel for Lucifer) and so if Lucifer is weakened and on the run he needs to grab a vessel strong enough to support him to heal up but he could be functionally depowered without Sam as a vessel to achieve his full potential, and worse vessels than Nick with a short shelf life combined with Lucifer ALREADY weakened from Amara = not having to write full powered Lucifer as a threat :P

-

Mary is quippy. I like her. (The “that’s an angel” line in context)

Cas’s attitude to humanity is a little wobbly right now - he’s prioritising the Winchesters over them now :P (which we’ve joked about a few times but it’s interesting to see it in practice)

(Although I hope he doesn’t permanently damage this bloke - I’m worried about the vet too)

-

Cas and Mary taaaaaalk

I’m pretty sure Cas was nursing that coffee behind all the napkins and stuff based on how his arm was on the table, but then Dean just yoinks it out of his hand. Pls don’t be gross in front of Mary. She’s still getting over how much has changed.

-

Also he went and bought it for them in the first place which is sweet. He’s a keeper. :P

-

PRECIOUS CINAMMON ROLL GOT BRIBED BY TONI AND WENT AND BOUGHT 3 SACKS OF DOG FOOD

DON’T HURT HIM DEAN

-

DON’T HURT HIM CAS

-

MARY NO DON’T TELL CAS TO HURT HIM

-

He’s okay \o/

-

Mary ordering Cas “hurt him” though - still a kind of attack dog theme there. I wonder if it’s connected to all of them for the class difference with the MoL (and how they use the hunters as border patrol guard dogs in Britain)

-

Fuckin’ Brexit

-

Did Dean break that phone because he was angry or because he didn’t want Toni to call back or what

-

Okay Sam’s having messed up visions but did he really just see Meg dying in all that :P Perhaps they’re scraping the barrel specifically for deaths Sam feels responsible for or he witnessed directly or something… (Idk how he feels responsible for Meg - not killing Crowley sooner? :P)

-

does anyone really know how the mind of sam winchester works

-

I’m actually kind of fond of Amber in a way just because she’s the Hired Heavy trope but a plain faced British lady and that makes her somehow kind of much more scary than every time it’s generic boring male Hired Heavies because she’s both surprisingly strong but also I kind of know exactly how relentless she might be because she reminds me of people I’ve known and it now seems strange they don’t use women like this more often :P

-

I’m saying that films and TV need to cast more widely from the types of people who shout a lot on trains

-

I’ve heard Dean n Cas referred to as “Strapping Lads” I can die in peace

-

Amber certainly could. TAKE THAT, RESTRICTIONS ON EU WORKERS

-

Oh god Sam no

(Eesh I hope people are okay watching this - that was REALLY hard to watch and I’m not suicidal or particularly affected by this sort of thing but that was a long time to leave us thinking Sam killed himself after basically just a ton of intrusive thoughts - probably easier to act for poor Jared not having all the extra stuff but.. eeesh.)

-

I am laughing too much at Dean and Cas shoving the car off the side of the road… Some things you don’t show on camera because they look objectively kind of silly. I mean nice little moment of them working together or whatever but

-

Mary gets the saving people hunting things speech because we’ve pretty much just restarted the show from scratch and she’s Sam in Wendigo like “let’s just find dad and go home” just wanting to find Sam I guess, but it’s sinking in that this is their life much quicker than Sam’s season long dithering over it… Mostly because there’s a real lack of choice. Which I find interesting that Dean again says how things are without any choice, like where he was naming everyone and telling Mary her own story etc. At this point I’m back to feeling like he does want to be a hunter and wouldn’t/shouldn’t stop as long as it’s not emotionally gruelling and huge apocalypse arcs don’t come after them (Sam, on the other hand, I’m now convinced after this episode needs to STOP and maybe go work in that nice nearby vet and carry sacks of dog food from the car for the guy and wear sweaters all the time and - … where was I going with this)… Mary has a choice though and I think she’s conflicted like Dean was previously… Giving her a no choice that this is their life and they’re not quitting any time soon puts her in the position to rebel against that like she did against her father…

Someone who isn’t about to stop talking and go watch the end of the episode already should probably compare freedom and choice in 1x02 and 12x01 with Dean and those speeches… The one thing that instantly struck me was that 1x02 was a call to action and “i think Dad wants us to pick off…” sort of was Sam and Dean coming of age and joining the family business for real even if they’d both done hunts before obviously, it was really the moment of choice to adopt it as their lifestyle. While Dean’s now talking from the position of an experienced hunter who, a few wobbles aside, has kept to that choice for going on 12 years now.

And Mary is sooort of in the same place as Sam because they both took time off hunting - he with college and Jess, she with John and the white picket fence and kids - and then the same thing catches up to them… She’s still back in 1983 in a way, being snatched from that quiet life and dropped into this one. It’s a steeper change and she’s going to have way more adaptability problems than Sam in season 1…

-

Anyway then everyone is sad in a car but Cas is riding shotgun and I like and approve this, even if the point was Mary wanted the emo seat at the back to be mournful and stare at the moon or something

-

Poor Sam though. Especially that imagery of the stairs up and the door with the light spilling out of it locked. If they’re focussing on his self-blame etc and bring up all his old mental health issues and letting him crash and really feel it for once (I bet whatever they dosed him with, it could trigger longer effects, even just remembering what he felt during this time or forcing him to feel all those thoughts and be reminded of so much pain) - having him locked in a basement is hell-esque, and the stairs and door are like, redemption just out of reach or whatever.

-

Mmmmokay it’s all over now to see how everyone else reacted… i’ve missed this part :P


	2. 12x02

[Originally posted by sassywiinchesters](https://tmblr.co/ZyzJft1VRTA_8)

oh boy… not ready for this. Last night while I was feeling woozy and dizzy I thought I’d continue my rewatch, and got 10 minutes into 9x16 before I realised what I was really doing was just feeling terrible about Buckleming and their writing 3 seasons ago, loudly, in the hours before a new episode written by teh ~dreaded duo~

Who did, in season 11, manage to scrape by on all their episodes, and their Dabb-overseen episodes of 11x18 and 11x21 were actually well-received, so we’re kind of joining them on a good streak and let me tell you I’m not even sure they’ve *had* a 2 episode good streak before :P

Anyway then I saw on my dash someone mention a new clip and torture but no one posted it and I didn’t have any energy to go look up the promo and no one else commented on it and then there was an undercurrent of worry about a Sam/Toni sex scene or something… And basically I’ve never actually felt too concerned about Buckleming!Sam before because he mostly just gets on with it, but for the first time in my life I’m actually kind of terrified of Sam getting hit with the awful in one of their episodes…

SO that’s my expectations and I haven’t even had time to stress about what might happen on the other side of the story or how silly Lucifer might start off as or anything (and I still feel terrible and slept for 13 hours) aaand the episode has finished downloading so here we go :P

-

The recap is reassuringly Cas-less except for a comment on Lucifer being gone, and him in the background while Mary saves them from Ms Watt… I did laugh myself awake thinking they’d do another 11x09 and just… forget… Cas, like, he was right there in the car with Dean, where is he now?? - I mean, Cas as we’ve talked about didn’t HAVE a huge role in 12x01 except for having the hugest role of just being family and present and all. They could have recapped his desperation to save Sam as well but in terms of individual plot threads since he was lumped in with Dean and Mary, I can see how they might forget him… >.>

-

Is that Sam? *squints*

-

I think it is actually impressive how you can Buckleming an episode in like, 5 seconds.

-

I did download How To Get Away With Murder and Elementary, maybe I’ll go watch one of those first while I wake up :P

-

Okay that was a good hour of TV but my head still feels terrible so I’m getting some tea and then I’ll try again >.>

-

I suppose whatever is happening here, it’s taking Sam x Toni off the table IRL to them because exactly how much more nope would that add on top of this

-

Wondering now how the Sam side of the fandom is going to deal with the issue we’ve had with 9x03 for so long about the problem of objectifying Misha completely out of context vs actually looking at what’s going on in any moment where he’s shirtless in the episode. Maybe this will build bridges between the sides of the fandom :P

I’m not really paying super close attention to the story but hey this confirms A: Sam never got the tattoo again (pfft) and B: soulless!Sam totally waxed his chest like we all suspected

-

ironically, this looks like exactly the “they should have just talked” conversation we were saying Toni should have tried with Sam instead of leaping straight into kidnap and torture and whatever the fuck this is - unless Sam’s dreaming the questioning as part of some messed up dream foreplay I’m assuming Toni’s african dream rooted herself in here or something and not told Sam.

(I’m still, 9 years later, suspicious Bela did that to him; I know some people were collecting parallels between them aside from “is British” and “likes shooting Sam” which was all we knew over the summer)

-

Oh cool Team Save Sam went back to the Bunker between episodes and now Cas has been separated from Dean and has his truck elsewhere. Cool cool cool.

Plus side: fan fiction gap where they went home briefly to regroup and gather their resources, and that’s ours now.

Sadly, I think all the coda fic after last episode assumed this would not happen and wrote post 12x02 as if Cas had been with them the whole time and we were just skipping ahead to when Sam was rescued, so I’m not sure there even was an angsty “we still haven’t saved Sam but we’re too tired, let’s snuggle for a half hour power nap and then get back to it” fic.

-

I suppose I could get distracted and write that instead of watching the rest of the episode, but that’s blatant abuse of my “not having to watch it live and react in real time” privilege which I get to enjoy by not watching streams or the actual TV show where there are only commercial breaks to breathe - like, I can’t write fix it fic 3 minutes into the episode, that is a Step Too Far, Lizzy.

She says, having watched an episode of Elementary after noping out before the title card  
or like how last year I watched all of Angel Heart in the middle of 11x03

Historically Not Good with watching the first Buckleming ep of a season - I think I managed to sit through 10x03 but I think that was one of the ones I watched for the first time with a friend so no pausing and getting up and walking 10 minutes down the road to a nearby cliff overlooking the sea which is a great place to scream into the Heavens from

-

Okay so I know this is a really good sign of trust that Dean would send Cas out to where Sam’s last known location was while he goes back to the Bunker for some reason, but like, I’m still questioning the characterisation because Dean snapped a phone in half last episode he was so worried about Sam… Unless they give a good reason, I’m sticking a pin in this (small pin compared to the opening scene :P) just for “why is Dean not there with Cas, and no I’m not even being shippy or upset about the team splitting up, did he just drive backwards away from Sam because ~reasons~ for the sake of splitting him and Cas up, when it seems way more in character for them to have all gone together because, hey, maybe Sam’s there, and now either Cas saves him alone if he stumbles on him immediately or Sam has to wait while Dean hauls himself and Mary out there to aid with the rescue

-

Oh my god show don’t tell SHOW DON’T TELL   
GIVE US THE SCENE OF DEAN AND MARY MAKING SMALL TALK AND NOT KNOWING HOW TO ACT

Fuck’s sake you have me arguing against DeanCas stuff twice in a row, now I don’t want Dean to be sharing with Cas because this is crappy writing

-

*stares into my mug of tea for answers*

-

Although I guess this is confirmation that Mary still doesn’t know, like… anything.

Have they even shown her a picture of Sam? Explaining the whole 8ft tall and won’t listen to reason about haircuts thing is "needlessly complicated” to use Cas’s words :P

-

I’m torn because I actually like that line from Cas, mostly because all his annoyed squinting is something I’ve always thought was because he thought humans were being needlessly complicated. Someone’s probably going to complain about Cas’s characterisation this episode, but you know what, I’ve already found like another hill to die on per minute of footage so far

-

Tea mug finally gets back to me: Dean tries to ask Cas for help with Mary, doesn’t know wtf to ask, has confused moment of reassurance, hangs up, has a scene of making small talk and not knowing how to act

-

At least this scene has Mary in the dead guy robe, and since I snarked too much into my sleeve about that when we saw the spoilers ages ago, yes I was referring to the whole Holy Family thing of God & Mary and Dean as the son because of name similarities, occasional Christ imagery for Dean, LITERAL virgin Mary imagery for Mary, Chuck as John imagery, etc

-

Also the Dead Guy Robe bestows bisexuality, I don’t make the rules, Mary’s queer now

-

(As we know, Dean officially became Bi in 8x13 when he put that robe on and walked into Aaron on the quad for the mysterious eye magic moment we’ll never know about (UNLESS - why CAN’T we have gratuitous flashbacks to how they met for no reason when he returns?))

-

Several minutes of episode have passed (finally and I’ve just been watching) and aaaaaah Mary accepting the blame for siccing Yellow Eyes on Sam. This is the stuff I’m here for. Her presence is actually saving this episode. >.>

-

Aaand we’re back at Sam and Toni and she asks a question so stupid it breaks his immersion, which I suppose is the most meta thing Buckleming have ever done :P

-

Even while Toni is being gross and rapey I’m genuinely feeling sorry for her in a meta way because there were some confused comments about her motives/what she was actually willing to do/her approach to torture last episode, and attempts to reconcile her have all just thrown it out the window like “nah we’re just writing her as generically skanky evil and doing whatever to Sam for like, no well-justified reason except first she should have sex with him and now she should torture him with a sharp thing for a bit” and all her character potential is going down the drain so rapidly I don’t know if anyone’s going to actually still like her any more at any level after this except for applying the “what happens in Buckleming episodes stays in Buckleming episodes” sticker to her characterisation if she survives this and comes back later written by someone else >.>

-

Did she just stab Sam in the teeth

-

Why would Mary forget stuff John did when she saw him the day before yesterday

Is this a commentary on their marriage or did Buckleming forget she skipped 33 years seamlessly by her personal experience

She’s wearing blue and red plaid blah blah balancing presence, blah blah recap of God and Amara swirling away together and reconciled conflict colours… okay yeah no are we applying the bi plaid thing to her as well since she’s dressing like Dean so much? :P

-

CAS

-

“Are we still discussing the same thing” holy crap okay so they’re in the middle of a married couple argument for some reason and I don’t even know why but Dean called Cas “buddy” and then Cas said this and what the hell that line is for couples who are having issues

probably in bed

-

I’m writing a fix it to my fix it fic from 3 minutes into the episode, 8 minutes in, we’re now assuming Cas had ~marital difficulties~ during their ~half hour power nap~

-

literally though where is the actual conflict between them so far this season

why does Cas think Dean thought that was a metaphor for something

wtf has been powerfully warded except for the walls they have built between each other??

-

I’m guessing Cas is still pissed at Dean calling him a ‘brother’ and Dean is still pissed at himself for saying that and they’re now getting passive aggressive that neither of them manned up and went for a kiss with The Hug last episode

-

Aaand now Cas has to just wait there squinting at the farmhouse when he could be saving Sam, because Dean and Mary have to drive all the way there

It’s quite possible Dean took Mary back to the Bunker with the aim to keep her there and safe and not let her out again, now he’s getting all weird about letting her come with

-

“Alright, good talk” *walks off*

She is definitely his mother

-

Ruby?? Okay Toni is so out of date it’s almost funny

Sam literally can not believe this is happening to him and his face IS funny.

He should stop not-talking out of spite and start talking just to tell her how wrong and outdated and confused all her information is like, holy crap, I like being right too much to take this - if I was in Sam’s place I’d be writing her an essay on how wrong she is before they even got to the blowtorch :P I’m sure this says a lot about his strength of character etc that he has not cracked yet

-

What would Sam say if he knew Cas was literally just chilling on the other side of the wall

maybe he could write Sam a note on a rock and chuck it through one of the windows

“Am Stuck Outside Don’t Worry Your Mom Is On The Way”

-

… in the least surprising plot twist of 2016, Cas really sucked at hiding Ms Watt’s car behind a few loose branches and she has now been discovered

-

Roweeeeenaaaa

She’s speed dating or something. Good for her.

-

I’m genuinely glad we’re going back to glam!Rowena because she belongs hanging out on silken pillows rolling her eyes at everyone and she’s totally right about “mouldy hideouts” - I don’t think we’ve seen her living it up since 10x19 where she started in luxury and ended it with Sam locking her in chains

-

Also yes it’s nice to see her going back to her pre-plot-involvement lifestyle of just going around charming/murdering people to live a luxurious life for the hell of it. Her whole “murder her way into a free stay at the classiest hotel” thing was how we met her :P

-

I can’t believe we didn’t see Rowena complaining about going after Lucifer though… I mean, that’s only gotten her murdered once before…

-

Hey rockstar!Lucifer

Or possibly Vince pre-possession? He looks kinda glum now he’s alone

Did they just say “check out the wonders of Cleveland” … what do Buckleming have about Cleveland

-

Oh look he has a dead love - I wonder if she’ll be here to chat to Vince in like…

right now

-

Nope, Lucifer’s just fucking with him a little first… Now we have a re-use of the car driving in the rain shot

(incidentally, doubling down on the “Lucifer using a love interest to try and possess someone” thing = reinforcing the parallel of him hanging out with Dean as Casifer in 11x11 or indeed getting permission to possess Cas in 11x10 in order to save Dean)

-

See this is a good natural progression of conversation between them to start opening up and all, talking about hunting and John and stuff

-

Dean talking rationally about John being taken over by the job: good   
Dean talking about how the job took over him too: super depressing  
Dean talking about how Sam had a chance to get out and Mary being surprised: AAAAAAAAAH

Also Dean not mentioning how he had a chance to get out (Lisa)  
And Mary not being, after Dean says the only thing they had was the car and each other, hey, what about that hot piece of angel hanging out with you all the time? She already knows something has changed but I guess what’s interesting maybe is Dean not applying it himself.

Pfft it’s warded. Are you sure that’s all you’re talking about?

-

She’s hopefully assuming there’s more story to be told there, because wow Dean hasn’t even mentioned Jessica as why Sam would get back into hunting - he’s not gonna be ready to tell his mom about Hell yet for like a year :P

-

I guess it is interesting to have on both sides of the story for Sam and Dean, their past being brought up to them, just with Toni and her wildly mis-applied information, Sam’s getting waaaay less of an emotional reaming than Dean is because it’s not ~real~ to him, in the same way as Dean having to tell it to his actual flesh and blood present in the room and not going anywhere soon mother…

-

*Ruby* Oh my god Toni

-

Anyway that Vince dude again

He has waaay too many photos of his dead stock photo wife around, especially since he’s in a hotel room - like he has to carry those around and set them up each time

-

I like that we’re going the 5x01 approach again with Nick - I’m assuming Vince is probably at least feeling responsible for his wife’s death hence the whole blood on the hands moment Lucifer pulled on him. It’s cruel and effective visually for us in a way that no blood but throwing Jess at Sam was in 5x03 because we had the history there to not need Sam to be tortured in the same way… But classic horror Lucifer-is-in-the-pipes style approach here. Nice.

-

Also I lol’d to see Vince peeping back around the corner to see if his tap was still running red… Okay I’m starting to like Rick Springfield

-

Hmm bit silly throwing all the picture frames at him like that - one of those “just because you can with modern CG doesn’t mean you should” things because all the stuff that could only be conveyed through actual physical manipulation of the world around the actors is always more horrifying than CG stuff when horror

-

Tada dead girlfriend in a nightie, although this time at least it’s pink and she’s wearing heels

-

Hmm, she says it was selfish of her to kill herself - Lucifer telling him what he wants to hear, or what he believes? I mean he’s obviously meant to be a crappy sort of guy and I’m guessing we’re going to need to know as much about him as Nick in the long run, but still >.>

Okay I guess it was what he wanted to hear in order to break him enough to make him say yes super quickly… That Vince guy was a jerk, so long :P

-

“What’s the bloody hold up? He’s the one and only Satan in the phonebook!” is possibly one of the best lines Crowley’s had for a long time :P

-

Crowley not wanting to involve “the Winchesters” - he and Rowena don’t know there’s more than 1 alive right now, do they? It would literally be Sam and Cas if they were gonna be talking about them… Or did they all get the memo that Mary was up and about, and Crowley has been like “woaaaah okay I’m keeping well clear of Dean then - not gonna fuck that one up for him. How about I go reconnect with my dear old Mummy to work with her for a bit”

I mean he’s being paralleled to Dean in this respect anyway, and Rowena back in the anti-Mary role (which is maybe why she has straight hair this season aside from the har har gone straight retired thing) but I’d be really interested if he knew Mary was back and was keeping well clear for Dean’s sake… Although on the other hand he might just have no interest in working with Sam and Cas without Dean alive because historically Dean has always been least likely to try and murder him on sight, except that one time in 6x04 - every other time Sam’s always gone for the throat, and Cas is emphatically not his friend.

Anyway Rowena brought it up first and I suspects she cares so little she may have just clean forgotten that Dean is dead, which doesn’t explain Crowley’s reaction except for wonky writing :P

-

Cas’s truck is full of hay and also I think there’s a fuckin miniature moose skull on the rearview mirror - I thought I saw it rewatching last episode and forgot to report back because groggy

hold on a sec

  


I mean as a motivator for Cas not to find a dead moose at the end of this mission it’s pretty stark.

There’s dog tags in there too - someone’s got to meta all this

I’m still not over the fact Cas has been carting around a ton of hay

-

“You brought your mother”  
“Hello Castiel, yes he did”

I love them

-

Dean’s wearing all black and he’s scruffy… And his hair looks longer than normal and is kind of going floofy at the front. I’m having war flashbacks to demon!Dean

-

Mary has a go at Dean for not letting her drive. Dean. Dude. Let her drive. But yeah it shows Dean being controlling and over-protective and also there’s a whole baggage of Dean not letting Sam drive and controlling him over the years. Not necessarily always in a bad way (although during Carver era it started to get a bit rotten - called out in About A Boy where Dean tries to drive despite being 12 years old, among others) but anyway Mary immediately calling out Dean’s attempts to keep some control on the situation.

-

What I don’t get is that I thought they basically agreed a plan that Mary was the unexpected element and Dean busting in on his own - now, that they would expect. But like with Ms Watt getting caught out by Mary, she has the ultimate element of surprise… I guess Mary was thinking it and Dean didn’t cotton on, but anyway Mary staying behind with Cas while Dean checks it out may be playing into something she already thought so she’s not going to fight him over it too hard… She knows she is about to go down there anyway.

-

Is Lucifer flashing his eyes red a thing he does now - I know it happened once in 11x09 and was kind of cool, but idk :P Maybe they have special effects budget left to burn this season

-

Thinking of that, Dean just stood in something like an idiot :P I guess we have human warding too

-

Sam is like “what kind of incompetent mindfuck is THIS I know Dean’s dead wtf are you doing threatening me with killing him like SERIOUSLY LADY WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE SO BAD AT YOUR JOB”

-

Probably in five minutes time: “Are you kidding, what the fuck sort of research did you do if you think threatening my MOM is going to do anything?”

-

*has no idea what just happened in the whole Lucifer Crowley and Rowena scene but I guess they’re having fun*   
I hope Rowena doesn’t get killed AGAIN here :P I know Crowley’s in the next episode but I’m losing track of if we know what Ruthie’s been filming

-

Meanwhile: Dean gets beat up for like 2 seconds, Toni mentions Benny and I have to stop and drink the rest of the mug of my tea in shock. Also she’s drinking tea while torturing them and I feel like I’m conforming to stereotypes :P

I’m gonna call that belated textual paralleling of Benny to Ruby like the subtext of season 8 was saying but never actually got said out loud anywhere as far as I remember? (It was only from Sam’s POV that I was thinking it was clear HE was thinking it but now Toni is using the two of them having relationships with demons and vampires as a way to jab at them for being shitty hunters who betray their principles)

I hope she gets to Cas

-

“The english are nothing if not patient” hm

-

This scene is gross but cool. We get to see Lucifer’s wings, now to never reblog a gifset of that because oh god the body horror of it all 

I watched out the corner of my eye

-

Rowena still has the hots for Lucifer though

-

Pls don’t kill her

-

Okay they probably wouldn’t kill her off-screen, there’s hope yet >.>

-

Sam has… just about… accepted that this might be Dean, I guess since he’s being authenthically snarky in a way only the real Dean can

-

Jesus christ Buckleming eye horror in the same episode as all this? Mary better come in and stop Toni sticking that thing in Dean’s eye before anything happens

it’s probably illegal by UN treaty to hurt Dean’s pretty eyes

-

Maryyyyyyyyy

-

Dean’s gonna ask Cas in a minute why Mary was allowed to come down here and Cas will just shrug like dude did you know you’re not supposed to piss off your mother in law?

-

Stop beating up Maryyyy

-

Maryyyyyyyyyy

-

Maryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

-

Toni stop it

-

Uh what is going on now and why is Cas here and who’s that bloke (I mean I guess Cas is here because of that bloke but… I should just keep watching. He doesn’t seem to be in any peril though :P)

-

Okay I’m looking this guy up because I know what he’s saying but how many Americans can even descipher that? I need to see if he’s actually English or what :P

Oh christ he’s Irish putting on this accent. GOOD LUCK, AMERICA

(I saw a few people say they barely understood Ms Watt and she was also genuinely from over here…)

-

Oh I guess he talked Cas over to come down if he’s ~extendin an olive branch~, which means Cas has pretty much let everyone go into that house… Well played, Cas.

-

They called Toni an attack dog too

-

OH and then he calls Cas an attack dog. Subtle >.> Who isn’t an attack dog?

-

“He could kill me without breaking a sweat” “I don’t sweat under any circumstances” *eyebrow raise* *gives Cas his number*

he’s thinking it :P

-

I still feel grumpy Cas spent 99% of this episode standing outside the house and 1% in the house, but he’s had some good lines

-

Mary continues to have a knock-off Dean wardrobe - rolled up sleeves, black over-shirt, t-shirt underneath? She’s not even starting to wear Sam knock-off stuff

I understand it was probably important to have Mary buy them take out but unless Sam crashed out and slept the entire ride back I feel like we’re seriously missing out some important moments.

He looks like he hasn’t touched his chicken

-

“I would have cooked, but I… don’t” Mmmmm yes give me more shitty housewife Mary pls

-

“Sorry to burst your bubble” no no no keep doing this, keep talking.

-

PS where is Cas

I hope Mick hasn’t taken him off somewhere to see if he can sweat under other circumstances because I am not willing to ship those two even if I did cackle at his reaction

-

Dean got his pie, story over

-

Sam needs his moment with Mary

-

Like, proper moment, not bonding over how much of a dork Dean is at eating

-

Aw poor Rowena… you almost got out! You are being paralleled to Mary though, so fat chance you’d have stayed out :P Your “sipping Martinis with Republicans at the tennis club” or whatever is basically Mary’s wish to get out of hunting, so…. sorry dear >.>

I’m glad Lucifer has decided not to kill her though, because he realised that she was now part of the main ensemble cast and can’t be killed off 2 episodes into the season

-

I mean, because she’s useful, whoops

-

Aw Mary has a room (she has boots on top of a cupboard which is I guess a way to dibs a room) and Sam is trying to have his moment with her

… where is Caaaas

-

oh there’s 5 minutes left… Like, that’s actually a fair amount of time in episode time, especially since they’re already home

I guess this is also where he gives her John’s journal and she reads it since it’s under his arm and this all matches promo stuff

-

Sam being an awkward goober is always a reason to awkwardly not look at the screen because oh m y god he’s always so hard to look at when he’s being awkward

-

I feel like he’s being severaly underrepresented for what he just went through though - he’s even apparently walking okay right now. I’m looking at that post that was going around about how vessels for archangels probably just heal faster than average

but anyway he’s had so much emotional whiplash and he needs like a whole episode to deal like Dean got last episode

-

There must be a comparison to make between Sam talking about how the journal fills in some gaps (e.g. Christmas episode) and Dean telling Henry back in 8x12 how much it HURTS to read the journal but how he memorised it anyway.

-

Aww Saaam *pats his hair*

HUG

YYEEEEEY

-

Oh my god Dean don’t be so emo

just phone Cas

where the fuck has he got to anyway

Cas your husband is being emo as fuck come deal with him

-

I’m so sorry Mary doesn’t match the one in the photos but you don’t need to look at them any more

she’s literally over there

-

I do like the idea of Dean hiding behind the kitc -  what the FUCK that’s the ENDVERSE PHOTO WHAT THE FUCK DID DEAN KEEP THAT

WHAT THE FUCK

-

What.

…….

The lyrics of this song just said “lost angel” and I agree

where is he

-

I mean aside from in the fuckin ENDVERSE PHOTO that’s somehow found itself in John’s journal like what the hell Dean

-

I suppose he pocketed it because it had the sign on it which said where they were, because that was the clue he followed to the camp, but then I guess it just… stayed… in his pocket… and when he got sent back, then it stayed in his pocket, and then later he pulled it out and remembered telling Cas “don’t ever change” and so he tucked it into the journal as a reminder to himself not to let Endverse happen OR SOMETHING

something being that photo includes Cas looking hot as hell in scruffy hunter duds and carrying a gun - there are other reasons Dean might keep the photo :P

-

Do you realise how much you can fuck up the space time continuum by carrying around an object from a defunct timeline? That thing should not exist in our universe Dean. You fucked up.

-

Uh while I was ranting about that, Mick and Toni drove off, Toni being admonished for going overboard. Mick, who seemed like a nice guy, said he’d already summoned Ketch anyway so he’s clearly not all that good since he does think there’s a problem,  but the intent is completely murky about it mostly because neither of them know wtf they’re doing with the hunters in America because they don’t know wtf the hunters in America are even like. This is a Mess.

Also the episode ended like 5 minutes ago, I was just shouting a lot.

-

In conclusion: this episode was an Experience™…

I am now convinced Buckleming do not have the faintest idea how to include Cas in an episode and so they just avoid him as much as possible while meeting all the requirements of having him around, and then drop him as soon as possible with no conclusion to his presence there. It’s quite possible they literally just do not understand what the point is of having him involved in this storyline: what Dabb showed us last episode was beautifully subtle and subtly beautiful, so of course if it goes right over their heads, all they see is Cas being vaguely useful to the plot, and so they put Cas on the side of the road to be useful for the plot, because he’s working with them, while all the emotional stuff goes on between Dean and Mary, and then Mary and Sam, because they’re not seeing Cas as part of the family. 

Even the Endverse photo is hard to ping as the Endverse photo if you’re not well aware of what it is from being a super nerd fan because Mary had it slanted to only show Bobby and a group of rough hunters, and Cas’s presence was concealed. Everything I said about him being in it was me reading in some blanks because they literally didn’t show him… 

His absence from the family dinner at the end was most notable, mostly to show that Buckleming just don’t realise he has a place at that table and that was exactly what was being shown last episode - Dean and Cas as a team, Cas as part of the family (established at the end of last season, so we’ve had a long time for that to supposedly sink in and for it to be really clear that Cas is supposed to be included in the family stuff now.) They stuck him on the periphery and didn’t include him in the emotional moments. It’s POSSIBLE they over-wrote the episode and we missed a Cas and Mary hanging out moment while Dean was in the house, because their episodes run over-long, but that doesn’t explain completely omitting him from the final scenes, even if it was just to show he was around and welcome at the Bunker - EVEN if he sat off to the side and didn’t say much. Or we saw him go his separate ways because he wanted to give Sam and Dean a chance to get to know Mary and was feeling awkward or SOMETHING.

And now we have Sam having been mind-raped by Toni for basically no reason except they thought it would be saucy, which is presumably going to end up like 9x03 - Toni survives and I’m wondering if it will be like cute “jokes” about Cas and April in later episodes, where Buckleming bring up Toni’s interest in Sam and no one else does. Of course in this episode, basically nothing was made of her doing that to him except for her expressing some enjoyment about it/possibly regret that she couldn’t go back and do it again. Sam didn’t particularly react, and was generally under-written for reactions and it was mostly Jared doing things with his face which gave me much to go on, and I spent a fair amount of time not looking at the screen while Dean was getting needles shoved up against his eyes so I probably missed more of Sam’s reaction and realisation that Dean was really real than I noticed… Next episode I’m guessing is the Sam Dean and Mary hunt, so I’m hoping Sam gets some proper development with her and maybe some actual concern for how he’s doing after all the torture and stuff.

The Lucifer subplot was thankfully exactly what I expected from them, so I found it pretty enjoyable all in all.

Mary’s part was done very well and everything in her orbit was great. I’m guessing that’s where all the attention on the writing was going. With Dean in her orbit all episode, he pretty much survived the episode without being Buckleminged aside from his random need to have a lover’s quarrel with Cas over the warding and I’m completely wtf about that one except again maybe they just have not caught up and got the memo on the tone Dabb set.

(and I think it was mostly weird tonal niggles that messed up everything for me - the overall shape of the episode wasn’t terrible and on a quick glance it’s following on with everything from the previous episode… except for where it all feels completely off >.>)

Okay this post is now super long and I still have a killer headache so I’m going to lay off it for now >.>


	3. 12x03

okay here we go! We have one stunning episode and one meh episode this season but I overall have faith in the season so I’m expecting good - the sneak peek from last night actually contained 100% of the footage I was already expecting (minus the bacon - I did not call that) and so I don’t even have any unresolved optimism because it was all “Berens will give us what happened to Cas” and here he is

(In the annuls of “tidies up after Buckleming” this is a good one and I’ve actually now un-feuded him for disappearing Cas in 10x19 - it’s good, we’re square, if you catch me bitching about that again give me a slap on the wrist :P)

Anyway we know nothing about the MotW here, although I bet it’s scary… And I’m personally looking forward to Cas n Crowley, but feel that’s justified given the writer…

Let’s watch the thing now :P

-

Nice use of young!Mary in the recap, especially the fade from her face to current Mary, reminding us the casting people make deals with demons

-

Hipsters! \o/ We now have a gif for man bun

-

Don’t go in the abandoned house

-

oh dang it feels like forever since I’ve had to get up and close my curtains to watch an episode of Supernatural because it was too dark in natural light conditions

I like this episode just for that :P

There is a difference between “stuff filmed in the dark” and “spoopy dark”

-

Okay the mummified baby is scary

I’m assuming that’s a mummified baby and not a doll

Maybe it’s a mummified doll

I’M RAMBLING BECAUSE I’M SCARED

-

I wish I’d been able to find a higher quality download because that’s a really pretty shot of Mary in the dark with a single lamp

This epiode is DARK. Making the Bunker look dark completely changes how it feels… Mary has a single book in front of her instead of the comfortable stacks of library books, the war room is dark, all there is is her point in the dark…. She’s obviously alone and all the information in the library is sort of inaccessible to her in the dark like she’s just got this one little piece of information to cling to? Aaaand it’s John’s journal, not any of the MoL library books… Yep. That’s all a metaphor for her ongoing adrift in time-ness and isolation.

I hope when Cas shows up he gives her a hug.

-

I can’t tell if that was a truck rumbling past the window or if they did a tense music cue on Cas approaching which immediately died when Cas showed up in that empty space. (no it was a truck… they missed a trick there, I’m on edge from the cold open and I was enjoying that experience :P)

-

Is that the second time they’ve managed to get “And Misha Collins” directly on top of Cas? Maybe it’s an obscure part of his contract to ensure that happens, which conveniently means he has to be in the opening scenes of any episode he’s in to wrangle it.

-

oh gosh I can’t handle this conversation. Pausing to point out what everyone probably already has that even just between starting to read, I guess having a shower and getting changed, and now, Mary’s put her wedding ring on a chain.

Actually I can’t tell if it’s just her wedding ring or what because she had two…

-

Also Cas saying “Luck” is really cute and I do that IRL if people ask me to wish them stuff like that

-

He should have offered to angel-boop her to sleep before she started talking about feelings

-

oh noooo and there it is, Cas saying he’s not sure he belongs here while telling Mary she does, as per all our worst speculation on where Cas’s head is at and why he won’t stay. He WANTS to belong here and we know he does, already, from Dean inviting him to stay and missing him when he’s gone, Cas finding his way to the kitchen in his mind, and he’s going to get another reminder he ignores or misreads as not significant like we do when we get to the sneak peek scene and Dean’s inviting him to stay and drink coffee

Mary also doesn’t know Cas well enough to reassure him he belongs too - she just takes his assurance that she does easily without reassuring him in turn - probably just not speaking for Sam and Dean, but also not pointing out how he very very obviously has a place with them from what she’s seen, and asking him the Big Questions about what he wants and that even with her outside eyes she can see very much that he would be accepted here if he asked…

Also Mary is seriously sticking with “Castiel” no matter what - the difference in familiarity, and she’s not picking up “Cas” no matter how many times she may hear it from Sam and Dean… Not sure how she feels about Cas hanging around them yet - may still be part of the big freak out she’s due over everything, but they’re obviously finding it easier to talk to each other because they don’t have the parental baggage - it’s still very formal though. (Although Cas’s voice broke when he said “Mary” and I’m dead, brb digging own grave)

-

YESSSS we see the haircut on screeeeeeen DO IT MARY

Okay well they didn’t trust her to maul an entire hairpiece on screen (Sam Smith’s actual hair is the short version I assume from photos of her we were seeing from even circa the end of season 11/over hiatus) because it would have made most sense to make a low ponytail for starters and then chop that off, THEN style it off screen in that way where in movies and TV actresses chop off a chunk of hair and then the next scene it’s magically been got at by the hair and makeup department to be a perfect new version of the short style

But still nice that we get to see the moment of decision and her starting to chop it off because of course it’s a great trope for new beginnings/shedding the old/casting away old parts of yourself etc

-

I was hoping we’d see Cas n Mary talk before this sneak peek scene so the “I think you’re needed here” definitely refers to what Cas has talked to Mary about - and I was hoping that was roughly how the conversation would go. So Cas is using his emotional intuition about the relationships between Mary and her sons, practically dictating a mission to them, mind you (I’m concurrently watching season 4 and yes they’re right about the season 4 Cas stuff - this side eyed look at them as he walked out the scene is very much how he was treating Dean in season 4 but OH what a difference on what he’s telling Dean to do :P)

-

Between these two scenes, though, Cas is MASSIVELY bottling up his issues - he showed to Mary the vulnerable side that isn’t sure he’s meant to stay, that he doesn’t even know if he belongs, and now to Dean and Sam he’s breezing out the door like “laterz, got a devil to catch” with a side of “btw you got your own issues pls ignore mine” which is a PERFECT use of Mary as the fourth wheel [insert gif of that time Top Gear flipped a Reliant Robin a few hundred times in a mockery of the stability of the third wheel] because her dynamic changes everything, INCLUDING for us at home, who now get to see Cas showing 2 faces at once in short succession - and we get a compare and contrast on his behaviour to someone who he can open up to like Mary (it’s actually better they don’t know each other very well or have any past baggage, but with Dean as the point between them, know the other is completely trustworthy since Dean’d die for either - Sam and Cas started with too much baggage that they don’t really do this either) and then seeing him act “as normal” to Sam and Dean.

I was mentally comparing this with 10x03 last night (okay I made a couple of jokes about this but I was also comparing them seriously :P) because in that episode Cas doesn’t manage to reach out to Sam (who is understandably exhausted and needs a drink) and they don’t even get close to having an emotional discussion in the way that Mary might not have seen the right thing to say to Cas, being too much a stranger, but we get to see how Cas is feeling. I think only the line maybe where Cas is talking about why Dean would want to stay a demon cracks open Cas like that, and it doesn’t directly explain why he leaves again (which may have been a Buckleming issue) but anyway it was massively contentious when he walked out that door and left Dean too it and wasn’t seen again for 4 episodes.

In this case, aside from starting at the beginning of the episode, so even if we get 4 episodes of no Cas after this, we already know where he is and what he’s doing so is going to be the best handled punting him into the void for a while (Casifer doesn’t count >.>), we also have a full emotional justification for what Cas has done, seen it from all sides, and it’s very much made at the start of the season, Cas’s storyline now about whether he feels welcome or not, which is going to need a bigger gesture than bacon and coffee in the morning (THOUGH DEAN IS TRYING, OKAY. THIS IS NOT BLAMING DEAN. HE LEFT CAS A PLATE OF BACON I MEAN COME ON)… So anyway we have Cas’s emotional arc all set up through these 2 scenes. I mean, yeah he feels guilty about Satan being free, but that’s, like, a regular workday for the Winchesters at this point. The underlying reason for leaving has been carefully laid out for us and stated in the text that Cas isn’t sure he belongs, and whatever the Winchesters (read: Dean) are doing it’s just not enough even when it’s their casual and not really paying attention to the matter best.

-

btw i effin love Berens writing Cas if you hadn’t gathered from that time I wrote 15k words just licking 9x06

-

Classic Sam™ “I heard Mom walking around all last night” aka “hi I was up all night as well but I’m just going to make this about someone else who is clearly having worse problems than me ha ha ha ha ha I’m fine haaaaaaaa”

-

I love Berens writing all these people

-

Classic Dean™ “All she needs is some R&R and she’ll be aces” *wink* *finger guns* *jazz hands out the door away from all his problems*

-

I don’t even know if he winked, I was looking at his forearms but I heard him do it

-

Jensen is a very distracting human being

-

Oh look Mary is still dressing like femme Dean… I hope artists are taking note of all this :P

(Notably, still not crossing over and dressing like Sam might too)

-

With the wedding ring on a chain, she’s even got a signature necklace piece like Dean had with the amulet

-

That better not turn out that the ring magically locates God’s uncle Bob at some point 5 seasons down the line when they’re really stretched for plot

-

Dean’s feud against Sam’s hair continues. To Sam’s credit, I can’t actually remember anyone pulling his hair ever and also he never had a foot of pigtails like Mary had although like with me vs the 10,000 zips on my brother’s coat, I suspect Dean sees it differently when he looks at Sam

-

Mary’s “i wasn’t” protest about finding a case is the cutest thing ever

-

Okay so Dean used those 10 minutes before they left to go find Cas on his way out in his ridiculous hay truck to land a smooch on him that he was scared to do in front of family, and tell him to have a good trip and not get hurt and to call them and dress warm and so on and so on

(wait Cas ditches the trenchcoat. OMG Listen to your husband)

-

“Nice bike” You’re killing me, but I guess someone has to pick up where Robbie left off, teasing us with the image of Dean on a motorbike for no reason

-

Mary continues to be Dean, or, I guess, showing us Dean is Mary… I mean he’s introducing her to junk food she never heard of but she chooses his favourite because I guess being a mom and wanting to know what he likes, and likes it as well.

The music Dean’s playing starts “I don’t want to die” and Mary turns the volume way the hell up on that. Good.

-

“I’m a Golden God Vince” - fortunately that’s referencing internally as well, so I stopped off at 8x04 on the superwiki to get the reference:

Michael: I am a golden god. I am a golden god!  
This line is from a scene in the movie Almost Famous. The quote was originally coined by Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant.  
[http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=8.04_Bitten#Trivia_.26_References](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D8.04_Bitten%23Trivia_.26_References&t=MTgzMmM1YTNkM2U1ZjU0ZTBhNGY5MjU0ZTkxNTJhMDIzYjA5NGY2NCxWTVJZR1V3bA%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F152426768103%2F12x03-watching-notesmore-okay-here-we-go-we&m=1)

Unless everyone did a Robbie Thompson nostalgia run and sobbed into their ice cream over the hiatus, I’m going to assume Berens is just referencing one of these two things - probably Robert Plant because we’re talking about rock stars here

although the whole internal reference to 8x04 could be pretty interesting maybe to muse on much later with half a season of context :P Although we’re talking about Vince here, it does of course make a more interesting parallel to Lucifer, and especially since they used that as a high before a fall sort of gloating in that episode, when he just thought he had super powers and before it went all messy and eating hearts etc.

-

Also Cas has taken off the trenchcoat and I feel attacked. I’m guessing he bumps into Crowley soon but we know there’s like 3 scenes at least where he’s not wearing it and I don’t know what to do with myself :P

I guess he’s mimicking Sam and Dean here, because he knows when they go interview people pretending to be law enforcement they aren’t always wearing coats, so he’s trying to look the picture more than normal, though of course being perpetually dressed in a suit has always helped him seamlessly blend in to many scenarios in the past anyway.

-

Probably a good thing Jimmy didn’t say yes wearing tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt though we’d have loved it :P

-

Also Cas has a cup of coffee in front of him aaaaaah

-

I love Cas with every fibre of my being but he needs to learn which pop aliases are appropriate

-

Jesus Christ Crowley, hit on him any faster?

-

(Literally one line into their interactions and I’m so amused)

-

OH YAY I was wrong - Crowley does have the tiny pitchfork drink :D :D :D

Which means the battleground is set instantly in 2 lines of dialogue and one drink - Crowley as Dean’s ex, hitting on Cas, Dean’s husband, and oh boy do they have history between each other *rubs hands together*

(I’m currently very fond of Crowley, but my instinctive reaction whenever he and Cas talk is after every line of Crowley dialogue to think, “Kill him, Cas!” which is meant fondly but I’m going to just not type that every time because people might get the wrong idea if I’m constantly encouraging Cas to murder him - it just means Crowley is doing his job right but obviously my heart is with Cas :P)

-

Ahahahahah “they’re new” Mary taking charge completely despite being younger than either Sam or Dean, and *we* have seen way more of those two doing the thing…

-

Oooh more handprints.

-

“their hearts were literally frozen” oh boy

-

(Yes I am connecting those last two points - last night someone was talking about how Dean is ready for Cas, but Cas did freeze him out while going off on his own and now we have handprint imagery and a couple with frozen hearts - never mind the print was burned into the flesh - but from cold, not the hot brand Cas left on Dean)

-

The timer begins on “how long does Cas not tell Crowley Dean is alive”

“it’s been months since we tried to kill each other” listen I said I wasn’t gonna comment, but that’s a perfect time for Cas to try and kill him, just to prove a point :P

-

I love his “I’m in the same space of Crowley face”

-

Wait did the “road trip!” thing get cut because that was where I would have put it… Oh well, it actually happened and we know it did, so that’s all that matters :P

-

Maryyy no don’t go near the creepy baby crib

-

Not for nothing the last time we saw you near one of those was sort of traumatic

-

PS is this metaphorically dealing with her issues or what

-

Also while I’m pausing it because Mary is locked in a room with a crib and bad shit is about to happen and I don’t wike it, just thinking about Sam and Mary, and how good it is that Sam’s an adult and they have this sort of fresh start feeling about them as they had no pre-existing relationship as everyone has been meta-ing? Because it’s easy to imagine Mary dealing with baby Sam by turning him into a sort of monster baby because of what was done to him, if she had lived to deal with the consequences (e.g. an AU where she knew what Azazel did to him but continued to be alive and raising baby Sam) - anyway she’s back and she knows how she died, so I’m imagining her sort of boxing off her demon baby into one part of her brain and grown adult actual giant puppy Sam into another box, but YIKES

-

I don’t want to hit play :/

-

OKAY THAT WAS CREEPY

-

I’m guessing Mary’s near miss wasn’t as much of a near miss as we think it was.

Of course her getting branded is different because all her remaining significant relationships are with her kids - having children who look a little older than Dean was as the victims puts her in this grey zone where she never was a mother to anyone that old, although they’re still obviously children, she missed all of Sam  being older than 6 months and all of Dean being older than 4… If the case is turning into creepy kids (and i think that thing is a mummified doll because it looks like extremely gross cracked porcelin on a second close up) then they’re idk like the ghosts of the childhoods that disappeared because Mary did?

-

Cas still isn’t wearing the coat… Also checking his hair. Gosh, he’s really anxious about doing this right

Also probably noticed how nice Dean’s hair is when he dresses up to do the canvassing

I find it amusing Sam told Mary that they don’t go knocking on doors so much any more and it’s all on the internet and we cut straight to Cas and Crowley going around knocking on doors.

-

Cas and Crowley are being the ultimate good cop bad cop…

although the real question is why Lucifer healed Vince’s sister at all… Maybe he knows he’s going to burn through the vessels quickly, so having the sister on standby is a living relative of Vince who has been more stable than the others… Healing her now means less effort when he has to possess her plus if she already knows Vince is possessed because he did that, then it makes her susceptible to agreeing to be possessed because he did something good to her…

-

“I should have known there was something you weren’t telling me” I am so amused that Crowley hasn’t been told that Dean is alive yet and Cas is wringing out of Crowley about his adventure with Rowena

like, Cas is allowed all the double standards when it comes to Crowley, I’m just having fun

-

I can’t believe Cas is mocking Crowley *messes up his hair affectionately*

This is possibly my favourite one-sided friendship on TV… Cas hates him… so much…

-

I saw a great post on my dash yesterday about a hero who had the villain being an awkward one-sided BFF with them and this is exactly the scenario Tumblr wanted to see

Crowley’s gonna make him a friendship bracelet

-

Crowley has very good reasoning for why to save Rowena and I’m reminded again of 10x03 and Crowley telling Cas that he’s not sentimental - we can see through it, and CAS can see through it

(he just doesn’t think it’s a redeeming character trait :P)

-

Also not for nothing but Lucifer was, we were reminded in the scene with Vince’s sister, something that burns cold, and he’s grabbing Rowena now with his clammy hands…

(Poor Rowena :( You got like 3 episodes without being in chains)

-

“The little boy who grabbed me - he was scared” *wibble*

-

OH NO that was unsubtle but maybe they really need to lay it on thick about Sam and the crib - I mean this is still the 3 episode myth arc starter pack for the season even if Team Winchester are doing a MotW it’s obviously much more than that and Mary has SO MUCH to be dealing with

-

Mary is a Winchester because she packed in 6 “i’m fine"s to make up lost time

-

MARY AND HER OLD WAYS GETTING THE JOB DONE AND FOLLOWING A LEAD

Also reassuring the mom who lost her son because phone calls

-

I love the way the salt and burn is turning into the middle of the episode bro talk - ghost cases have a good pattern to them these days

ALSO I love that the bro talk can be quite open and honest - starting with "I’m worried about mom” isn’t coming from a place of secrecy at all - it’s just the 2 of them trying to deal with a big thing that ISN’T coming between them but is mutually concerning

-

I mean, in different ways, and so they’re arguing, but the root of it is they’re both invested in their mom being back

Dean, though, denying anything is wrong - Amara brought Mary back for him to give him some uncomplicated peace and happiness and that’s how he’s going to take it

Sam who can see a bit deeper on this having a weird sort of emotionally connected but still more objective viewpoint, can be more concerned about Mary as a person than Mary as their mom, just because he’s still trying to figure her out for himself instead of dealing with the pre-existing image as Dean is, so he’s seeing when something is wrong…  
… ironically the thing that is wrong with Mary seems to BE Sam but

-

“She’s burying herself in hunting to avoid dealing” “and how do you know that” *Sam puts on the most done voice I have ever heard" “YEARS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE”

Holy shit in an episode with Cas and Crowley working together I did not expect Sam to take the Most Done Ever crown

-

*Dean refuses to meet his eye*

-

“Like mother like sons”

-

AAAH NO SHE’S TRYING TO BOND WITH THE LITTLE GHOST

-

HELP

-

“I talked to your mommy. She misses you so much”

STOPPP

-

he sends her into the creepy basement

Also he’s called Lucas, like the kid from Dean in the Water

-

*rooting for Rowena*

YAY

Representing a “mothers can save their own dang selves” side of things

Although punting things into the ocean just means they’ll come back later - a gem of wisdom I learned from another fandom :P

Quite amused that Cas and Crowley are on a mission to recover Lucifer and send him back to Hell not the bottom of the ocean - if we have to send Crowley to the bottom of the ocean to fetch something AGAIN I will laugh so hard

-

Also Lucifer should have just ditched the vessel but I guess reaction times are key and he wanted to yell and hurt her some more

-

Mary continues to be awesome, sliding around to grab the shotgun

-

Love the black tear effect of the ectoplasm… How are you going to deal with this then, Sam and Dean? :P

-

(we saw this in one of the promos so I knew it was coming but have some obligatory panicked yelling anyway)

-

Ah, the old “breaks control of a thing for Dean” trope is back - I’m pouring one out for the crypt scene imagery although I think we managed to conclude that arc finally last season - back to the Swan Song set of imagery

-

I don’t have much of the episode left but I’m getting so feverish I think I need to go have a bath to reset my body temperature because ugh… Sorry Mary, I’m actually going to pass out if I keep this up, you stay possessed for a while

-

A thought while I was floating in the bath - I’m really enjoying Cas doing things differently - mocking Crowley with a different sort of sarcasm than before that comes from a different sort of understanding of his character - not that Cas is good and Crowley is evil in very simple terms, but that Crowley is *mockable* and emotionally sort of pathetic chasing after his mummy to save her … and Cas doing his hair in the mirror, and choosing not to wear the trenchcoat. And then it occurred to me of course the trenchcoat is his whole “draped in the flag of Heaven” thing and Cas is doing this mission not for them, but totally for his own self. But even though he’s sort of shed Heaven as his motivation for doing external missions, he still wears the damn coat around Sam and Dean - you could say he didn’t have much chance to change between like, here and idk the middle of season 11? But he could have ditched it at the Bunker before we saw him in this episode if that’s how he felt.

I’m just thinking of all those times Dean checked Cas out when he put on his regular gear and got a boner over it or paused mid-angst to eye Cas up. I hate that it checks out that Cas still dresses in his regular way “for” Dean, because it means Dean is essentially to blame for Cas still wearing shapeless trenchcoats :P

-

I have tea and noise cancelling headphones over wet hair (great combo >.>) let’s watch the rest before the fever comes back and I have to go to bed again

-

Also notably Mary not breaking so far out of the control - she can break it to save Dean from being like, deaded, but not so much that she can exorcise the ghost from  herself

-

yey Mary saved the kids

and is looking sadly at Sam while Dean hugs her - still trying to work out if she lost this one or not >.>

-

I forgot to check if Cas still had the HAY

-

nope I’m too invested in his hay truck, I’m remembering the time stamp here and going back to check

-

He’s got rid of the hay and I am distraught

-

Aaaaanyway

-

Cas put his trenchcoat back on for the “big fight”

-

Yey Rowena getting to do the smarmy “you just missed him”

I love her

-

I am fairly sure we just concluded the episode with Crowley still not knowing that Dean was alive so I take a cookie for that

-

LOOK HEALTHY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DEAN AND MARY - he tells her she was riiiiiight

wait fuck there’s 5 minutes left but we’ve dealt with EVERYTHING

-

How much healthy communication are they planning on doing

-

“when he lost his child he went mad” oh no Mary no no no no

-

“You’re home now”

“No I’m not”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

-

“I miss John, I miss my boys” Ugh :(

-

The journal’s sitting on the table through this encounter around where Mary is standing - she’s got the visual representation when they say “we;re right here” of her sons - and John as represented by the journal, also “grown up” into something she doesn’t recognise

-

OH NO she remembers Heaven - and it was with all 3 of them which means presumably they were just happy memories (not soul mates because the whole point is that Sam and Dean aren’t the baby and the little boy and also they’re not dead but I somehow feel this won’t stop some people thinking it) which makes the whole Heaven system that much MORE tragic - in a way when  you’re dead you’re content and don’t really know/think about it, but when you come back, you’ve spent 10 years hanging out with what are essentially figments of the past, and now you have to deal with the fact those figments are over for now…

If Mary died now it’s quite possible she’d go BACK to hanging with the figments of Sam and Dean as the baby and the little boy, and not have new memories of them as adults because what part of this so far is really a heaven-worthy memory?

-

Ooh good is Mary going to go off on her own?

YESSSS

GO BE YOUR OWN PERSON

-

Also this is paralleled with Cas just because of that opening scene just of the fact she feels she has to leave because she doesn’t “fit in” and he felt so too and he’s off on his thing and now she’s off on her thing… hey do both have a place at the table if they’re ready for it, but Bunker Family 3.0 is going to take some serious work to get everyone there - for once in their lives Sam and Dean are the ones ready for a family and representing the “ideal” domestic space, but others now have to come to them.

-

Mary going to hug Sam has a weird feeling of Home where she breezed past Dean and went to speak to Sam for the more significant part of the interaction - she just looks over at Dean with a “i love you both” and leaves without a hug - again mirroring the most significant Mary and Sam interaction… I think we’ve now actually covered them all? 1x01, 1x09 and Sam and the imaginary Mary in 4x21? It was slim pickings to begin with :P

-

Unsurprisingly, end of episode

(I feel awful, I’m half tempted to just post this and quietly play pokemon all afternoon)


	4. 12x04

you know how I was getting all worked up about Mary and Sam?  _This is exactly the episode I was hoping for_  holy crap. 

I am officially being pandered to by this storyline

yikes I hadn’t even settled down with my coffee yet but I stuck the episode on and the recap started with Ava and no I was not prepared to think about that before I even took one sip of coffee today

Note: has the recap slightly changed format to have a random intro of 2 important clips before the “THEN” to set the tone because I swear the show never used to do that and it’s throwing me off without my 2 seconds of title card to hit pause on while I find fuzzy socks and take a few fortifying gulps of coffee

Okay so before we even start the “real” recap we have Sam telling Ava about psychic kids - notably not psychics in general, you know, the Pamela, Missouri and Fred Jones sort of recap, but the YED plot specifically lumping Sam in with them and showing him using his powers on Famine in one of his most impressive displays of the entire show.

I don’t know if I should file that under “Okay, ominous” or what. Teasing about does Sam have demon blood still, does Sam still have his powers, etc, is cheap PR - Mel has a post with tweets from Jared (or… a publicist? :P) literally on the dot one year to the next asking the same question… 

Along with the murky question of if he still has a tattoo or not, these are the unresolved questions about Sam I guess that exist somewhere in the same space as bi!Dean in terms of long-term unanswered questions, except obviously not comparable in many ways. (Although of course in the first season those 2 subtexts (powers, not tattoo) were paralleled right beside each other. Since season 6 though, Sam’s powers have been switched off and their potential to still exist and be used is right there in the subtext of whether you believe they’re gone or he’s merely not acting on them.) It doesn’t provide as much material to endlessly talk about, but it’s a long term unresolved question and hey welcome to season 12 aka the show is now double the length it was when this was last a Thing.

If nothing else now the show is openly asking the question just to give us some more to talk about and of course since we’re revisiting season 1 in many ways. With Mary back reminding us of what happened to Sam, in the MotW we now get everything from Sam and Dean’s POV reflecting back on what’s just happened to them because these episodes are their time to think, as it is. 

From Mary’s POV we had her guilt over Azazel, and we had flashbacks to the nursery where it all started, and of course casting Sam as the demon-eyed doll, an alien creature in the crib to her, so from this direction it’s very much about Mary’s presence dredging up the past and offering a new and probably much healthier way to deal with this life-defining trauma for Sam, because once again the events of that night are “fresh” since they happened last week to Mary.

OR see also “okay, ominous” and now I’ve drunk some coffee and put on warm socks I start the episode and we see if Sam’s randomly psychic again now :P

-

Anyway yeah the recap is essentially a season 1 recap for a ways, reminding us of 1x14 as if it were the last episode, like literally everyone predicted since seeing this one’s title and what it was about. Once again, a season 1 thing being as if yesterday.

(Incidentally, strong start before any new content… One of the things I like about Robbie’s arrival on the show is his “HEY SO I BINGEWATCHED THE SHOW” overt message. So the new writer (Is it Davy Perez today?) is putting down some cards on the table to say, yes, I know this show)

Also aaaaaah seeing Cas in the recap. With his part of the Mary conversation cut out to focus on her not feeling like she belongs but you know what how many MotW even show Cas in the recap so I’m taking it :P

-

Hi Jesus! Fancy seeing you here

I remember someone commenting on the promo that it looks like stigmata might be part of the MotW thing here (I’m guessing some sort of religious mania horror, if you combine psychic stuff), and I should probably just watch to find out what’s going on, but aside from a few wry comments here and there through canon about Jesus he’s been notoriously absent - that church in 8x22 where he’d fallen off the cross and just his hands and feet were left really stands out to me. Of course there’s oodles of Christ imagery but I’m trying to remember if we’ve had any prominent shot of an icon of Jesus since season 3 and that hilarious hunter with his Jesusmobile.

-

Oh yeah okay I did not have to wait long for the stigmata

-

Ouchies.

-

Random aside at the title card: I don’t think she got stabbed in the side (that happened after Jesus was dead already, right?) but I’m p. sure that’s what that spear was that Dean has stashed under his bed or whatever he did with it? Of course, that’s not going to be mentioned ever again but :P

-

(More ways in which the show mentioned Jesus without really talking about him)

-

Oh yay Dean’s in a good mood. :P Considering last episode ended with reminders of how he was mute after Mary died, I thought it was a good touch that Sam led the introductions and stuff - Dean interjects to be pissy with the priest about not wanting to talk to them.

-

Communication theeemes

-

Eep Sam has a red exit sign

-

But there’s a green way out sign between him and Dean - for my ongoing hope that their issues this season remain not between them but from elsewhere.

-

“What kind of priests are you?” “The old fashioned kind” more theeemes - doing things the old ways? Obviously connected to Mary last episode, but Sam and Dean are also entrenched in many old ways they need to move on from in a “meanwhile in their issues” sort of way…

Also aww at Sam guessing the difference between Hebrew and Aramaic by ear from one phrase. Find me a scarier linguist on TV :P

-

I know they’re using TV voices but this church is SO echoey and picking up all their voice - anyone in there would hear what they were saying at this volume because of the great acoustics. It’s actively breaking my suspension of disbelief because I know they would be whispering but they’re not and all these parishoners are hearing everything about the case >.>

-

*Dean stops to angst about a mother and son*

*sneaks up behind him with a blanket and a mug of cocoa* It’s okay, it’s okay :(

-

WHAT OH NO THERE’S MORE OF THIS CONVERSATION THAN IN THE PROMO ABORT ABORT WE HEAR SOME OF DEAN’S SIDE TALKING TO CAS

Incidentally he should not lean on his car dressed like a priest because [white noise in Lizzy’s brain]

-

Anyway all we missed last night was him telling Cas it was “really really weird” so I’m guessing that was about Cas and Crowley, and now we have another bit of teenage girl ~boyfriend drama~ language from Dean re: the Dean/Cas/Crowley love triangle nonsense. (He was the one who called his fling with Crowley ‘embarrassing’ instead of any more reasonable language that did not suggest deep, deep regret about a holiday romance).

Yes of course it’s weird when your boyfriend works with your ex. ALSO how did they even get there. Did Cas say, “I hope it’s not weird” knowing full well that it’s SUPER WEIRD for them because of the messed up relationship dynamics? Or did he just sense Dean getting weird about it (because he’s more emotionally intuitive these days) and ask him if Dean thought it was weird?

Either way Cas knows working with Crowley is “weird” and he and Dean understand that and - I don’t know, sometimes I don’t think we give them enough credit for self-awareness. What’s subtext for us about Dean and Crowley is a lived and learned experience for Dean and he knows exactly what he and Crowley did together and has a serious point of reference for how he feels about CAS working with Crowley. If he knows full well the extent to which he messed around with Crowley, and then he’s telling Cas it’s weird - he’s thinking of that, maybe not self-analysing, but actual insider knowledge of that relationship is informing his reaction here and forcing some reflection on how he feels about Cas going off with Crowley, whether he fears Crowley making off with Cas or if he’s just uncomfortable about all the depth of feeling he’s shared individually with those two and they now hang out together and he’s not there to mediate or stop them talking about him or whatever.

I just… need to send a fruit basket to whoever had the crazy idea to write Dean and Crowley as a relationship back in season 9. 

(Robbie started it in 9x11)

(Also: the concept that the show may have ended by now endlessly fuelling these decisions as they leap into plots that maybe weren’t meant to fade into a sort of background radiation to the characters… Would you credit that in 3 years time this dynamic would still be playing out and everyone would have moved past all the immediate consequences, and it was just a Thing in their shared history and new writers three years down the line would get their name flashing up on screen for the first time while by their pen Dean stresses out loud about his complicated feelings over Cas and Crowley interacting?)

-

Oh crap crap crap this gets WORSE holy crap now Dean’s texting Mary and being so awkward I could DIE. So his look when Sam came over with coffee wasn’t about getting off the phone with Cas, it was about being caught sending The Worst Text In The History Of Ever

The face of a man who realises A: he can’t make a text disappear after sending and B: he never actually taught his mom to text.

The whole “should I call you Mom or Mary” thing is probably the best 1 sentence summary of Dean’s issues with her as yet. Ignoring the whole “using frightening future technology to contact her and did you even give her a phone charger” side of things, which adds all the complications where Dean isn’t even considering her needs or whatever. He’s wrestling with core philosophical issues here.

-

“I’m a thirteen year old girl”

Oh boy :P You should know I do pause the show to type all this if it’s a long thought, so I had no idea Dean called himself that when I was typing that he was behaving like a teenage girl with Cas…

Anyway yeah he has kind of been sitting “in his room” aka on his car, texting and calling and having a lot of emotions all going back and forth through his phone, so it is kind of spiritually very much the idea of a teenage girl hanging out in their sanctum trying to deal with all their bazillions of emotions, but you know what, that’s a good and healthy thing where girls learn to express themselves and their feelings and build up their social skills and intuition etc… Similarly we’ve had a few instances of the Winchesters vs teenage girl’s bedrooms and finding their diaries etc - they’re always kind of outsiders looking in and mostly making fun, but Dean is now directly comparing himself to someone in that scenario. And especially in relation to his mother, he’s been trapped as a four year old for 33 years, both to her, and emotionally we say that a lot about him, when it comes to relating to Mary. So he directly compares how he’s relating to Mary to another age, and he’s added nine years to his emotional maturity ALREADY :P Dean the perpetual adolescent seems to be going through a healthier stage of emotional growth. I’m calling it a win >.>

-

I mean he still thinks showing emotions is mockable but at least he’s owning to doing it :P

-

ehehe good news/bad news… I wonder if Dean even realised he did that before Sam prompted him for the bad news. Like yeah Dean would have told him about Cas and Crowley, but did he subconsciously pick “good news” without registering that he’d stuck Cas and Crowley in bad news? Because he also knows they’re having “kind of” good luck with that so there was no need to say it was “bad news” especially when Sam was THERE for Cas to tell them he was hunting Lucifer so they knew full well what he was doing. A different look on it would be “and Cas’s hunt for Lucifer is going kind of well, they found a lead, etc” without ever putting it as bad news. Essentially all that’s “bad” news to tell Sam is specifically that Dean doesn’t approve of who Cas is working with, even though *clears throat, gestures at Dean and Crowley, rests case about glass houses*

-

Okay I was wrong about the bro drama this season, Sam’s “love” of Vince Vincente is going to tear them asunder

-

Dean blurs Vince and the devil, which is also blurring Sam’s reaction about this - I wonder if that’s a wider commentary on Sam vs Lucifer. E.g. finding he has one album that doesn’t suck… I’m not really sure about a Lucifer redemption arc but see again: this show has gone on so dang long that Lucifer himself is entering a weird character grey zone - as in, there’s literally any room at all to bemusedly wonder if they actually would do that

-

“I was right” aw Sam :P *messes his hair up*

-

Sam defending poor Carl, morgue technician, from Dean. Dean’s response: “he’s a big boy, he can take it” - again emotional maturity linked to various assumptions about age and gender - Dean’s assumption that being adult and male means you don’t get to be upset about people being mean to you

-

TBH “you’ve been a little cranky” is 1000% better than all the emo episode codas re: “ever since Mom left” - the fandom jumping for openly displaying Dean’s emotional destruction, while the show is playing a long con of him repressing it as usual - although of course we’ve already been allowed to see a huge crack in the armour with him texting Mary and knowing he’s being emo about it

-

Also he’s not in an alcohol-fuelled crash and burn which is all A+ handling himself like a “big boy” :P /subtle transition into talking about this is subtle

-

It is bothering me how much 8x17 is in here (again: the episode that opened with Dean finding that spear) - because of how Cas was torturing the demons, the medical reports came back including holes through the hands which led them onto the case as if chasing some stigmata mystery but of course it wasn’t the real deal, it was “just” Cas.

(I mean this is clearly not going to be the real deal either but)

-

Hahahaha child protective services *subtle* (re: 1x14 re-do)

-

Pls don’t kill Dean - “you don’t make a lot of friends when what’s best for a family is sometimes to split them up”

I feel like this is also a meta line where Davy’s been asked to say something to the fandom in response to the inevitable backlash for sending Mary away (see also: how a chunk of the fandom has been inspired to hate Mary in 3 short episodes of having her around as a real character)

But yeah since I’m on Mary’s side here, I’m not being judged by this line so I’m free to screech about the face Dean just pulled when he heard that.

-

He is falling to biiiits

-

How did she have any right to give them the case files when it’s something to do with vulnerable children?

-

Although, Dean, don’t call her the “wicked witch of the west” - she seemed nice.

(Oz references though… Always the Oz references. I’m up to what 3 or 4 mentions of Robbie Thompson in the first 10 minutes? Davy’s doing OK by my book :P)

-

Dean talking to Carl the morgue guy again - alone -  and apparently doing just fine getting more info even if he was grumpy with him earlier

-

“Old old testament” more theeemes of the old ways - which doesn’t make a ton of sense in the context of a Jesus MotW, because he’s from the New Testament, but hammers home the idea of old ways (e.g. leviticus and those rules aka I think we’ve found an “in” on the queer subtext here :P)

-

OH was Beth (I think she’s called Beth - the one Dean was calling the wicked witch) is wearing a necklace with an exaggerated ring pendant. HM.

I need to pop back to her first scene to see if that’s why Dean took against her -

no, she’s wearing a teardrop pendant

okay so this is a this scene thing.. Lemme rewatch

-

She’s also wearing maroon and black in this scene aka demon!Dean, Jenna, Amara colours… But with Mary’s necklace. Mary has been wearing black and maroon last episode too, especially after she changed clothes though she always had maroon somewhere - she had the maroon coat tempered with friendlier plaid but took a slip into black and maroon and now this mirror has it too…

[future!me drops by with a clear screencap from later in the episode :P]

-

Ew, “god’s will” type Christians who let their daughter die.

Magda briefly flashes up on screen - blue eyes, dark hair.

Wait.

“A few years ago…” okay right but remember in 11x12 where that prop suggested the episode was set in 2017?  
Magda’s date of death was in september 2016.

I guess it’s 2018 already in SPN land

-

Why is this happening

-

I mean, season 6 and 8 hiatuses but

-

what the fuck sort of attention to contuinity do you have to have to set your show perpetually 2 years in the future on set details but you can’t remember if Lucifer is the older child or not

-

Also this does mean that in-universe Amara is not responsible for the Cubs winning the thing despite all the gifsets I saw, since she would have killed Metatron next year so his death wouldn’t be related

-

Sam n Dean are already driving up to the house in their sweaters but I’m still trying to work out if there’s any deeper plot relevance in mirrors etc to the conversation about Magda but I’m utterly thrown by the year :P

-

I can’t believe there’s gratuitous footage of Dean climbing over a thing and sticking his butt in the air while wearing these trousers

There’s probably a metaphor as well about how Sam edged around the problem while Dean turned it into a massive hurdle to get over

-

Dean having abandonment issues in this sweater means I legitimately just missed an entire important conversation while staring at his shoulders

*rewinds*

I guess the point was that Dean feels firmly abandoned to the point where he’s assuming Mary is gone for good, while Sam heard what Mary was saying and thinks she’ll be back - Dean is turning it into a massive hurdle and Sam’s edging around it :P

-

Oh cute, Sam uses the line about families needing time apart, and does the “I’m cute” face at Dean.

Liking all the subtlty in the storytelling here :P

-

there’s a chessboard on the table :D

-

Omg the “do you know God” line was cut differently in the promo - Dean DOES have a snarky retort immediately about them being besties

I’m so happy right now

-

NICE MOTORBIKE

I’m guessing that was Mr Ketch? Checking out the car? This show is really subtle sometimes :P I wonder if he’ll even do anything or just keep breezing past them for like 12 episodes

-

Or they end this episode getting their butts handed to them by him or something

-

I did wonder about Dean parking the car like that blocking the drive with her butt sticking out into the road, but I was too busy being distracted about Dean sticking his butt in the air to type anything

(this episode is awful and I hate it. You are allotted one (1) costume porn option per episode and Davy Perez has broken the law)

-

Pfft that speech from the father of this weird family about modern consumerism and people watching fake people on their screens… So you’re the villain this episode, huh? :P It’s an interesting direction - all the meta stuff through the whole show has been about the importance of stories one way or another, but this ties in with Mary in a way since she’s shown up as a Luddite in the modern age (I can’t believe Dean is stressing she hasn’t texted back when he doesn’t even know if she CAN text like, dude.) - this is specifically going after visual media like TV and cinema (but I’m guessing mostly TV on a sliding scale down to phones) and it’s all very modern, new stuff - things people would pick on specifically as a sign of the modern age…

Like, you know, for example in the recap of this very episode, Mary peering around in the cafe seeing all the people on their phones and tablets, ignoring each other at the table.

So Mary is aligned with the villains although it’s more from a lack of understanding/familiarity with the concept - which if you add that to not understanding the modern way media is consumed and the IMPORTANCE of it (the keyword here being the man calling them “fake” characters) then you’re getting to what is essentially a direct criticism of the mindset behind killing off Charlie and not understanding why it was wrong - they’re not REAL people, they don’t MEAN anything and if you’re upset about them dying we did a good job tricking you into thinking they were real enough to mourn them…

The clever people working on the show know how people consume it and how it affects them, and WHY - because Charlie wasn’t just a character we loved but a character with real world consequences and importance as a symbol of things that bled over into *real* life and how we felt about ourselves as fans (and then narrowed down into other brackets like “queer fans” or “female fans”, who have had bad or mocking rep on the show before with earlier versions of meta characters)

Anyway I guess we don’t know how Mary feels about stories - we can assume she’s a good character and any misaligned views are open to be corrected but she’s not meta in the same way, more like  being used to open up meta conversations such as about fridging, or her perception of the story and all the stuff about the stories Sam and Dean have been living with (which are different from each other’s stories)

(which takes us back to 1x14, that last conversation about John, and then I guess back to this episode since it’s riffing off that episode except we haven’t even reached anything about that yet :P)

-

I’m only 16 minutes in which may also be why I don’t have more to say about this episode >.>

-

“the things you do for family” he says, regarding practices founded in old, misguided beliefs that got one of his children killed through neglect

-

Oh also he was an alcoholic, re: the next scene :P

-

the kids didn’t talk (lol) but could text (hi Dean the 13 year old girl with communication issues) and the mom was on pills and barely knew what was going on in her life

-

I don’t think the mother’s the one behind the current deaths but she IS responsible for the state of this family as it is now, e.g. it was her decision in the past that put them here today in a drastically different life than the one they had before… Although their past problems reflect what Sam and Dean grew up with…

-

“So what happened to your daughter, that was God’s plan?” … “God doesn’t care what life you lead” … “God didn’t kill your daughter, YOU did.” Omg, Sam. <3

The Winchesters have a thing about God’s plans for them, and Sam suffered so much for his part in them over seasons 1-5, but of course last season when he met God it was Dean who was taking God to task for humanity in general… Sam was awed to meet the man behind the curtain and at the time didn’t express anything negative. Now, however, first MotW since like, 11x19, and Sam’s got some thinking to do in this “free time” they have right now. He glared at Dean for saying they were besties with God (Dean having now internalised all the bad crap and turned the ridiculous outer layer of what happened them into the joke it seems - aka all the text posts we make about Dean saying God made them pancakes in response to that line in the promo from last week) but Sam’s issues with faith are always slow burn and complicated and of course he’s dealing with these people who he KNOWS are going about it wrong in a way which isn’t directly about anything that happened to him, but of course a couple of weeks ago he was a pawn in God’s plan not to talk to his sister by making Sam take the Mark of Cain just to avoid hard conversations, I mean… Sam has issues here is what I’m saying. :P And he’s expressing things!! A bit of the old Sam Winchester judgemental overkill while projecting his own issues… Love it.

-

Incidentally while we’re talking about going back to the start, you have to remember this is a Day 1 character trait of Sam’s - when he goes to talk to Constance Welch’s husband in 1x01 he rips him a new one over her death while also revealing too much insider knowledge about ghosts and shit, so telling this lady with absolute authority about how much God cares about what people are doing with their lives… yeah, Classic Sam™ but, like, the Divine Plan and shit instead of ghosts. :P

-

I love when new writers waltz into the show like “HI I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING”

-

Oooops Dean overheard all that. I mean, and everyone, so they just got kicked out but

-

While there’s an immediate and obvious point to make about Sam and Dean assuming the other knows what to do and is on the same page, and both going for completely the wrong thing with their ghost hunting and witch hunting equipment (when the recap has let us know it’s psychics so they’re BOTH wrong) aka MASSIVE miscommunication/interpretation theme…

I’m actually really amused by the contents of the car trunk right now:

Dean’s neatly folded his shirt, trousers and sweater, while Sam’s just chucked it all willy nilly into the back of the car, and it’s very obvious that’s his screwed up shirt and sweater in there.

-

Oooh no Dean thinks the family are “good people” after interacting with the dad, while Sam of course thinks they’re disturbed because of the Mom… And I feel like Dean’s way more wrong than Sam is (since Beth was an obvious wrong target with her positive vibes wicca and presumably plays little part in this) but Sam is still wrong in other ways… Anyway interesting that Dean literally can’t see anything wrong here at all… He didn’t want to see anything wrong with Mary before she left buuut in 1x14 he knew what was wrong with their family and Sam DIDN’T - he was the one who thought they’d had a good time of it and missed the cues entirely even though he correctly read that Max was disturbed.

-

Oh dear, they’re splitting up to prove themselves right, and Dean’s chasing a wild goose and Sam’s staying at the farm so he’s going to be in trouble >.>

-

I hope Dean doesn’t hurt Beth though, I’m attached to her for obvious reasons of instantly adopting any and all fictional Elizabeths who seem remotely nice :P

-

Uhoh, found Magda >.>

Okay now we know she’s alive I guess the whole “Magdalene” thing is a thing in a Jesus episode?

-

Although I’m assuming they locked her up because she’s psychic and that wigs them out? Maybe even moved out here BECAUSE of her, not just the Mom and her story?

-

I was already paralleling the father and their son to Dean and John, so again, mirrors of a mother and a psychic child she can’t deal with aka more on this Mary’s horror about Sam thing which I’m so excited about.

-

(Everyone who reblogged a post I made about that tagged it with a “hmmmm” so I’m feeling a little vindicated that this is turning into a Thing)

-

Well I might be wrong, I’m still looking at her intro without all the story that will come out later

-

oh nooo “you let the devil out” - I mean they’re talking metaphorically because I guess that’s what the mom calls Magda’s powers, but I mean, we’re dealing with a mirror to Sam who LITERALLY let the Devil out because of his powers…

-

I HOPE MAGDA SURVIVES THIS BECAUSE I AM SO SUPER WORRIED ABOUT SAM RIGHT NOW

-

It is kind of ironic though that she’s saying “the devil is doing his work through you” because she had no idea about God being disinterested and nothing to do with this story, but LUCIFER HIMSELF is… well, currently occupied elsewhere, definitely not doing weird shit through this poor teenager

-

Hahahaha self-flagellation the Winchesters are great at that too >.>

-

(Poor Magda :( :( :( Sam’s gonna be the best child protection services ever and save her, right??)

-

Oh Sam NO don’t hear this conversation with the dad and Elijah because heeey I hope you don’t have any lasting scars from season 2 and John’s last words to Dean about Sam… “She’s our cross to bear” never mind all the stuff about how people would come for her or whatever, aka all the stuff about hunters going for Sam and that time Dean said if he didn’t know him he’d hunt him and -

yeah this family is not a giant parallel focussed around Sam’s old mytharc days at all

-

And the fact the mom’s role in it is the most villainous of them all while the dad is sort of just dealing with what they’ve come to… This is probably the darkest Mary mirror BUT really necessary for dealing with the consequences of what she did and I guess also dredging this all up for Sam again, because it may be like last week for Mary but he’s had half a decade to recover, and it’s been slow and awful and with plenty of backsliding, but Sam’s been doing much better lately and mostly managed to move past all the trauma and knock-on traumas of his stint at the head of the mytharc…

-

I need tea before I forge on with this

-

OMG SAM’S PHONE BACKGROUND

I love him :P Talk about snarky rebellion against the BMoL… you don’t think we deserve this? I’M MAKING *OUR* LOGO INTO MY PHONE BACKGROUND

(Also thinking about stories delivered via phone - Sam modernising, telling the story through his phone… Giving us a very real character detail when they’ve always had stock photo phone backgrounds before, aka very “fake” sort of things)

(well… Dean had his own feet as a phone background in season 6 which was an extremely real detail about him but recently they’ve had product placement phones and generic backgrounds. Sam’s making a huge leap of self-identification here :P)

-

Fading from that to Beth’s candle. She’s still wearing her maroon dress and super obvious ring on a necklace

-

Dean better not just go straight for her with that gun

-

“How are you liking the new gig?” he asks her  
“I hate it”  
*blink*

Honest communication - she even tells him that people are only trying to “adult” (as a verb) when someone photocopies their ass and she has to yell at them even though she thinks it’s funny. Mary, likewise (much younger than her sons) has been thrust into a bizarre promotion to hunting mom and she had to “adult” (telling Dean he has to do what she says, taking the lead in the FBI pretending and saying Sam and Dean are her newbie subordinates) but it doesn’t fit her and she hates being in charge like that. The fact that it’s all a pretence at control and “no one” wants it is a beautiful honest detail, and it stops Dean dead in his tracks and saves Beth’s life that she was completely honest about what she hates.

-

Aw nooo “I can help your sister” and the boy wavers, but then Sam is knocked out by the dad before he can make any progress with the brother

-

Oh no, now Sam is locked in a room with Magda so they’re gonna bond and it will be awful

I need a cushion to hug

-

Aaaand the pie symbolism continues to nosedive - the evil mom and dad standing there with a huge home-cooked pie in front of them. Yes, they’re such a happy couple.

-

Okay Sam’s talking about his powers I quit I’m too emo about him :P

-

He says he can’t do it any more - he doesn’t *think*

then he said “It didn’t make me the devil” and I laughed tea back out into the mug. ew.

-

I mean he didn’t *literally* become the devil, it was just an express train to him being possessed by the devil :P

-

Poor Magda though - bringing up the nature of evil with intent vs end result. Sam’s had to believe very very hard that people getting hurt as a result of your actions but not your intent doesn’t make you evil, and struggled with that for a long time, never mind the earlier stages of thinking he may be evil just because he has powers

-

SAM MADE MAGDA SMILE BY TELLING HER SHE NEVER HAD TO HURT ANYONE AGAIN  
HELP

-

OH NO MAGDA CAUSED THE CAR CRASH (I mean I sort of assumed she was going to be responsible somehow because Sam parallel but AAH)

-

“We will enter Heaven as a family” Hahahahahahha oh god that’s…

Well, on the nose.

-

I don’t think Mary’s gonna kamikaze her family but it’s a good (horrible) mirror to how she might feel, the regret for wishing she was dead and back in Heaven with her happy uncomplicated family

-

Oh god I’ve flipped around to being so worried about Dean because of Elijah being so messed up by all this he’s picked up poisoned food on his fork JUST BECAUSE HIS MOM TOLD HIM TO DO IT

-

Hey, the Winchesters are remarkably functional in comparison

-

YEY Magda saved him

-

NO POOR ELIJAH

-

LET’S JUST SAY THAT’S A MIRROR FOR HOW MARY SAYING THAT FELT LIKE IT STABBED DEAN IN THE HEART AND NOT ANY FORESHADOWING

-

YAY VICTORY FOR SAM AND HIS “NO ONE ELSE HAS TO DIE” THING

Mercy for the terrible mother as well - something if Sam and his issues with his mytharc and Mary and her issues with what happened to Sam come to blows, he’s going to need in spades.

-

Dean missed the whole thing >.>

-

I mean this was the most Sam episode to ever Sam, so understandable, but still, kind of awkward…

-

Dean finally getting the message about needing space to figure things out - which he says after being told Magda’s going to go stay on a ranch…

… I mean I’m just saying the last characters we saw retire to a ranch for their happy ending made quite an impression on Dean :P

-

Sam’s adopted Magda, basically

I expect to see her in all future-set fics from now on.

-

Pfft Beth gave Dean her number… Guess he talked his way out of that awkwardness pretty well then :P He doesn’t really say anything about her chances though, just comments that she was hot and moves on to talking about Mary (which is a good thing because Beth was a positive Mary mirror in the end since nothing else happened with her except honest communication and espousing the idea you needed to take time off from family, echoing Mary’s words… Anyway, she was WAY too much Mary but then again Sam hooked up with that girl in Baby who was a Mary mirror, and Dean hooked up with Ann-Marie in 10x01 who was a Mary mirror (never mind 6x01 and what it did with Lisa and Mary) but she’s BACK now so they need to knock it off and stop looking for their mom in their love interests and branch out… Cake vs pie etc)

-

Hahahaha I was right, Mary spent the entire episode trying to find a helpful 2018 person to explain to her how to charge a phone up

-

I’m deducting 100 points from this season that Mary learned to text without Cas’s help though

-

Uhoh, oh no oh no oh no we’re seeing Magda again for the first time catching up with a character after they get put on a bus out of town… I’m guessing Mr Ketch wasn’t impressed with all that mercy they were throwing around earlier >.>

-

Protect Magda

-

Yeeep there’s the motorbike

Noooooooo

Magaaaaaa

-

KILL HIM

Maybe he will die before we ever see his face :P

-

Nooooooo

Okay now I’m personally invested in murdering Mr Ketch in turn, you got me. >.> VENGEANCE FOR MAGDA.


	5. 12x05

Aaron is apparently taken for granted as someone we all just know with no intro? Is that because his intro is completely unrepeatable if they want to play it safe or because the same stats that tell them how many times you all skipped to watch the shirtless Soulless!Sam push ups in 6x03 tell them how many people always skip 14 and a half minutes into 8x13 and then watch 5 minutes on repeat? 

Honestly I’ve watched his introduction more times than Cas’s probably, and I don’t have Netflix to add to these stats but I can not be the only one and some of you have to have Netflix. :P

[12x05 watching notes amended to this post because… got to have some Dean x Aaron somewhere]

-

I think the graffiti in the wide shot from the start of the cold open said “molar” and let me tell you the only thing worse than eye horror is any inadvisable TV dentistry horror…. Primed to nope out :P

-

cold open lady I’m genuinely not sure is a historical figure or just dressing old fashioned, since they seem to be antique dealing. I’m seeing nazi pocketwatch and lady with this style of dress, and thinking nazi Umbridge, since she takes one look at the logo of the eagle and swastika and says “beautiful” and there was the whole thing where Umbridge wore a Voldemort horcrux for a while and thrived on it

-

“you folks” “personally I don’t see the appeal” okay she’s a trump supporter/Umbridge :P

-

HAAA She’s being immolated too BURN IN HELL

the best part is this says with ZERO words that if the Thule are going to immolate her TOO, then she was a genuinely third party buyer which means she was DEFINITELY a muggle neo-nazi

I feel sorry for the shop guy but I’m enjoying watching her roast

-

*camera also enjoys watching her burn compared to shop guy who just dropped out of frame and his death was treated with no relish*

-

:>

-

PS: so my reservations about this episode are currently hung on the door and forgotten just for that

-

“scrambled or fried” hey, brains were scrambled last episode, people getting fried this episode. Sam’s just keeping up a commentary on the cause of death of the week

This is the promo scene which was pretty light on analysis that I saw last night but I suppose people may have talked in depth since because it’s been an entire day (which I spent on trains >.>) Sam is trying to take over a parental role here - the whole “thanks mom” thing from around this time last year but he’s literally offering Dean shop-bought pie as Mary did… He DOES say “got everything on the list” and gestures the pie at Dean on the way into the room, however, so his attempts to entice Dean to eat eggs or pie behaviourally aside, it does mean DEAN made a request for pie, which he isn’t actually feeling. The reminder of eggs is as another staple on a shopping list and with all I’ve said about pie, I feel like Dean’s working on an instinct that it’s what he’s supposed to eat and request, but when actually faced with it his appetite goes out the window.

Sam’s part in this then also includes him not being on the same page as Dean, when it comes to understanding him, being a step behind. The nearly longest running pie theme is SAM failing to bring Dean the pie - from 2x21 and 4x02 off the top of my head before 7x03 where Dabb got his grubby little hands all over the theme. Now Sam REMEMBERS the pie and brings it to Dean - FINALLY… HE’S ONLY BEEN WAITING 10 YEARS - and what would once have been a symbol of brotherly unity in a time of peace, e.g. a saccharine scene where Sam just shows up and hands Dean a pie and Dean’s like yay pie and eats it, is now a sign of further miscommunication as the themes move on and evolve, aka Dean is going through character development*

*this may not be taken positively by some as it currently stands although I personally see the wider theme as a thing of potential positive growth for Dean, the point is characters can develop any which way they like, positively, negatively, or just moving to different pastures, and this has a whole mixed bag but it’s NEW and DIFFERENT

-

Until i saw “Adam Rose” in the credits despite ALL the sneaky spoilers I was still worried it wouldn’t happen :P

-

Hold me, this episode has Aaron in it

-

Wait while I was hugging myself over that Sam actually tried psychoanalysing Dean and I literally have no practical experience in this field despite having a literature and history degree that both wandered through these fields, because I can not get my head around it and especially Freud stuff (which google tells me this is) has always seemed like bunk even before I found out it was :P

I believe the concept Sam threw at Dean was slightly misapplied from the wikipedia definition which I guess is the traditional understanding of the concept… Seems like the surface reading would just be Sam making it clear he knows that Dean’s just transferring his feelings about Mary to not wanting the pie aka what we’ve all talked about anyway (and since it’s a Freud thing oh boy we are not going any deeper into it than that, though if at least one of the new writers is applying Freudian theory which in LITERARY terms is much more valid than actual people because when writers write knowing this stuff then they write characters who are written within these lines and are leaving flags for how to analyse them in this way in turn because of the understanding that went into the character… Listen I’m being outsmarted by Meredith because I didn’t pay good enough attention in these classes so if nothing else this is where I stop and hope someone else knows how to do this :P)

BUT for insight ON Sam it’s frikkin fascinating he’d have that practical application ability of psychoanalytical concepts (TRUST ME YOU CAN READ A HELL OF A LOT ON THEM AND HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO APPLY THEM REMOTELY ‘PROPERLY’) AND that he’s in a place where he wants to do it to Dean, and is risking trying it out loud etc these these are all really interesting things about him as a character…

(As with last episode, though I didn’t say it, now we have 2/3 of the new writers, I’m putting a note down that I love the new new writers coming to play with old old characters, because it’s really obvious that they bring a new side to them and these are really interesting new sides)

-

Is this shop “Marv’s” antiques?

*pours one out for Metatron*

-

otoh I’m not sure what “guess we missed the cavalry” “guess we should go home then” is about because Dean is the one who wanted to do this and they’re not even in fed gear - they rolled up here as themselves so they didn’t even seem to be expecting crime scene dealings? Unless they buzz every crime scene but come back as feds if they’re going to have a problem

It’s quite possible Dean was being sarcastic too but I had to sacrifice ear buds because the stress of holding them in my ears is exhausting when you’re me (I’m 100s of miles from my noise cancelling headphones *sadface*) and there’s a lot of street noise in this scene and my listening comprehension is terrible

-

Awww antique shop full of mirrors

we really are burning through season 1 direct parallel episodes ANYWAY not including this - if this is Bloody Mary it might be worth keeping an ear out for the themes of that one, mostly secrets and deep dark guilt for deaths you caused even if you really weren’t to blame

-

And we never found out why Dean’s eyes bled but as far as i remember TPTB (aka Kripke) declared there was a secret and it wasn’t just her general way of killing being thrown at Dean too as a defence mechanism as I always assumed before discovering fandom was full of Intrigue and Mystery about all sorts of random shit like that

-

LOL Dean breaking a ship by knocking off the Union Jack okay symbolism, chill.

He’s gonna fuck up the MoL; despite Mr Ketch going for Magda, who was of course all about Sam in the story, we’ve been comparing him in ways to Dean or Dean-associated characters, themes, etc far more heavily than what affects Sam.

Anyway I’m sure if you’re a nerd about warships there’s probably something historically interesting about that model - interesting it’s very definitely british - if you don’t catch the union jack before he knocks it off, the St George’s flag is also flying which is our country specific one.

(a lot has been complained about of if Scotland, Ireland etc are included in the MoL’s iron grip on the country)

-

(I paused it to type all that before he butterfingered the whole ship to the floor three times in a row… I hope they were ALLOWED to fuck it up like that because that model would be complicated and expensive even if it was a prop made for this… I saw complaints about Dean flailing around to get over the fence last episode, and then again we have him being clumsy and physically awkward. He’s always been a bit of a goober, and this is 2 in a row of total disaster zone dork. I wonder if it was an improvisation this time though as there were 2 angles on that… Honestly with the good solid symbolism of Dean and Sam’s approach to problems last time with the fence, Dean clumsily letting things slip between his fingers is something we were suggesting he might feel ANYWAY about the “why does everyone always leave” thing with Cas and Mary both disappearing off in the same episode)

-

Oh Dean also stops himself from wrecking any more ships :P

lol

-

I swear to god that boy only rolls natural 20s on Detect Hidden Doors

DMs hate him

-

With all the chairs pinned to the walls for display, I’m uncomfortably reminded of Mystery Spot, although idk if that’s just a antique shop thing because they do put weird shit on the walls

-

Okay so Marv the shop guy has a whole Nazi room lovingly displayed so even his “you people” comment doesn’t save him from some serious eye rolling about pandering to them and profiting from their gross interest, so he probably at least semi-deserved the immolation

-

Was that an Indy reference with “Nazis - I hate these guys”?

*awards Merideth points just on the hazy suspicion it was because I still haven’t forgiven Berens for the catastrophic failure of introducing the Lost Arc what was once Raided for and not having anyone say anything while Sam was doing the info dump*

-

It’s been almost a year and it still hurts :P

-

*insert gif of Sam mocking Cas for not getting the reference back in season 6*

-

*insert gif of Cas saying “will you, boy…?” because…when isn’t it appropriate to remember that?

-

This couple comes through the door making out with the camera panning up with them faceless and I had a heart attack when I saw sweater vest, hoping it was not Aaron

unless he’s randomly tall and blonde I think we’re okay

-

also I have no clue how tall he is IRL because standing next to Sam and Dean is not “IRL” and he’s probably taller than me

-

okay is Vancouver just so full of hipsters now that all the random dudes this season are hispters or have that beard because…

tbh idk why I’m fixating on that, I’m already in love with this random girl because she’s such an awkward potato and getting more and more high pitched by the moment

she talks like me

-

truly, representation for the socially awkward that you actually relate to is a rare and magical thing :P

-

wow this is the worst first date ever

-

oh dear the nazis are a father son team this is going to be a terrible parallel no matter what happens

not like any family parallels have been good this season so far

Dean last episode saying the family made them look functional is probably the whole point of this tbh

-

anyway RUN ELLIE RUN i’ve known her five seconds and i would die for her

-

aw whaaat they just have Aaron on the phone

booo

-

HE’S IN GERMANY. DANGIT. THAT IS TOO FAR AWAY FROM DEAN.

-

idk if it’s just me but that’s also like, the last place I expected him to be. You hear about ex-Nazis hiding out in weirdass places (Argentinia dubiously has the honour of being a place I associate with this when I think about it - I think it was used in an X Men movie but I already knew it before then >.>) and actual Nazis in Germany seems somehow wrong.

Maybe Aaron’s just following leads in a way that takes him back to the source - family research, old paper trails whatever - before heading back out.

-

I mean I assumed he could be in Europe many times when speculating where he’d go since 8x13 but I never actually thought Germany

-

Never mind America itself does a fair trade in Neo Nazi shit here and IRL >.>

-

oh wait he’s explaining that but I was so distracted by him wearing a glowstick necklace I didn’t hear what he was saying first time

-

Sam gets all awkward about a waitress overhearing Aaron’s less than socially acceptable description of what he’s been up to the last couple of years, and over on his end he gets quiet and directs himself away from letting a girl with a glowstick clearly from the same club overhearing - kind of a trust fall there that the Winchesters fail by sticking him on speaker phone while he’s paranoid about being overheard where he is

-

I’m assuming there’s going to be an explanation for why they caught him clubbing anyway

-

lol Dean called Aaron “bud”

*Aaron disappears back into the club and leaves me 10% suspicious he’s just been on a European rave tour the entire 4 years and is too ashamed to tell them he hasn’t done any work so bullshitted the whole conversation*

-

this has been way too diplomatic for my liking tbh. Maybe it’s a new writer thing.

LET THEM BE GAY for once in Dean’s life it’s maintext here

-

Maybe not to my liking but tbh IS to my expectations so far - I have had an extremely neutral-to-worried perception of this whole episode, and really just getting to the end without a huge obvious fuck up for sensitive subject matter is good enough for me

-

“oh my god do you ever shut up” … listen Ellie is me and no, no she does not

also she’s babbling about her grandparents leaving stocks which I swear was Aaron’s backstory that his grandpa (uncle?) the rabbi would leave him savings bonds or something similar. I’m going with untapped Judah Initiative girl maybe.

-

(The alternative is that she’s Hitler’s great niece or something which… yikes)

-

We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it

-

Thule kid complaining about how his dad wants him to be a mindreader and it’s not fair with the expectations on him. Dean pops up behind him summoned by the siren call of angst “Family drama’s a bitch, ain’t it?”

*Sam in the background actually saving Ellie*

-

What the HECK costume department - does Dean’s shirt have plaid INSIDE THE COLLAR what the heck

I’m just saying there are WAY less complicated, finniky ways to sneak in Destiel subtext here

… not least because w/ Cas that plaid in his collar is because it’s showing he’s a Winchester/links him to Dean. Dean IS Dean Winchester. Either there’s some story here about his inner plaid-y side I’m missing or this just hilarious because it’s like couples starting to dress like each other or some shit

wtf do we do with this

-

Dean’s desperate for an easy uncomplicated excuse to kill things - Beth last episode, that fucking grin as he prepares to shoot this guy because he IS a horrible Nazi necromancer which is WORSE than a witch by several degrees of magnitude, taking into account cultural baggage and political ideologies etc (I mean this kid is young and most likely brainwashed - remember Cyrus Styne in 10x22? This guy is doing much more of the grunt work being evil like kidnapping Ellie and cheerfully being along for the ride to immolate people while Cyrus is just starting but he’s young ENOUGH and we’ve got the overbearing demanding father that there’s probably at least an angle a defence lawyer would take on this - who knows how the episode goes about dealing with him from here onwards)

Anyway, the Mr Ketch conversations have dredged up 2x03 a few times from different angles, especially here re: Dean enjoying the uncomplicated monster killing before shades of black and white ruined it, but of course ultimately for the greater good of character development, that nowadays he is so much more forgiving - he never seemed to consider at all that Magda was guilty; we weren’t shown anything about it but it was a non-issue so we can assume he’s in a place where something like this is a given

but when it comes to “human monsters” there’s a whole new grey area to explore when it comes to much deeper, more complicated questions about what makes a monster and at the very least the guy here seems to be a darkest timeline Dean where John’s ideology was exactly what Victor once accused them of when he didn’t know they were hunters, back in Nightshifter. Anyway Dean saw reason not to kill Beth but she wasn’t a witch at ALL in that way he was thinking of. This guy is a nazi, working for the Thule and so on, but the fact 15 minutes into the episode Dean is cheerfully grinning to himself while preparing to shoot him is at least making me think things about this subject.

Even if the guy isn’t somewhat redeemed or explored much deeper than this, I think it’s worth a wider picture look at Dean’s mindset

-

*hits play and the guy says “you don’t understand, he’ll kill me” and then starts telling their story to the Winchesters, complete with flashback

Also he has an American accent instead of a German, which tbh may have subconsciously influenced me to wonder if he was supposed to be sympathetic from the start.

-

pfft the guy actually SAID Horcrux about the watch

-

You know what, I dislike on principle that this means in the SPN universe Hitler still hasn’t been to Hell

though if souls get demonised in Hell maybe this avoids the whole problem of some random demon turning out to be Hitler

-

*thinks of that post about Fuckhands McMike, re: pointlessly escalating SPN villains*

-

honestly, entire context aside, I have wondered in the past if by SPN rules you can put souls in bodies that don’t belong there - like if Sam had somehow had the wrong soul put back inside him after being soulless. Could that even happen?

well I mean apparently yes although I guess this involves more black magic to make it stick than JUST telling someone to open wide

-

oh look, someone like Hitler’s niece

-

she takes it pretty well all things considered *I say watching her stomp out*

-

Okay Sam is definitely being connected to Ellie - saves her, comforts her in the middle of this, Dean sets him to go fetch her.

-

TBH she’s probably another Sam parallel, finding out she has something evil in her blood - since the Thule are interested in her blood. She has been managed and tracked by them just like Azazel and the demons tracked and followed Sam - the details about her personal life suggest an accidental confidante in someone who’s a Thule agent. And of course the guy mentions there’s tons of Hitler relatives out there but she’s the lucky winner, so there’s a whole “special children” breeding programme they’ve been following. The fact she was adopted doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad happened to her blood relatives, especially if she was so young she doesn’t remember it and at her age didn’t know, but the whole cursed bloodline thing Sam felt (re: 3x02 and all the dead Campbells and Mary’s friends) it makes sense to wonder if something bad happened there or just that her blood parents knew about the Hitler connection and wanted her to grow up NOT knowing it

-

we probably didn’t NEED Dean and the Thule kid making awkward small talk but I appreciate it

-

I like that she just plain doesn’t believe Sam about Lucifer when he TRIES connecting with her over their very obvious shared back story

-

*you tried sticker*

-

1: I just watched through the whole fight scene like “wow you really need a golem to help you”   
2: I stopped to type this after the nazi guy complains about the golem like lol I’m glad Aaron and his golem are notorious pests to them and they feel hunted… in a way that’s all I needed for Aaron’s arc for now, just to know he’s feared :P

-

this season is definitely kind of about Millenials and I’m amused again that Mary falls into the age bracket, though of course not the experience bracket

anyway the kid just got called this (I thought he was older but his birth date is 4-5 years before mine, so he’s, what, very early 20s? is that young enough to be a kid? it shifted how I thought of him)…. I’m finding this very surreal to have him chewed out for being a Millenial by his dad but in a way it really encapsulates the whole generational issue. No, that’s our grand or great-grand parents era that this guy comes from, but with the American election as a stark reminder (although this was written back when Brexit was the thing raising the potential HORROR of this in America without knowing it would happen there too for sure though Trump’s demographics were clear enough in the summer) the fact that the older generation voted for Trump who appealed to literal nazis were both well known things already… Honestly, the next hurdle for Millenials in America is Thanksgiving with all their Trump-voting older relatives so this conversation must be uncanny

(again - visiting my dad who’s older but obviously not THAT old but is actually liberal and worried about these things, I’m really, really, really appreciating my luxury/privilege not to be worrying about stuff like this)

-

on the other hand this nazi talking about the falling of empires and stuff about it being perfect for Hitler’s return is just… uncanny… they could not have stuck this in within the last 2 days

-

the cafe Sam and Dean are in is labelled HOME COOKING on the window which again is a huge contentious issue this season since Mary didn’t cook :P

-

*Dean fails to check out the waitress*

Since we saw her through Sam’s eyes earlier with him being hyper aware of her presence, I think that’s a thing >.>

-

I like how the kid Thule plonks himself down - Sam’s so startled he practically has his arm around him from the bad positioning :P

Meanwhile Dean already has his gun out under the table. One of the last episodes I watched was 4x19 with Adam where Dean does the same while trying to figure out if he’s a monster or not (uh, oops. Anyway point stands.)

-

Sam gets the reaction shot about the kid’s comment about trying to make his father proud - Dean gets the sillier reaction shots to stuff like “he asked a guy named Fritz to kill me”

on the other hand do we take it so much for granted we know all this about Dean, it’s more interesting to look at how Sam reacts? Dean’s expression is vaguely haunted anyway the whole time, even when he’s wisecracking. He looks old. The camera angle is that one that makes his face thin.

-

I just remembered how bonding with the grenade launcher makes him look so much younger in the promo and oh! there’s 10 minutes left and they’re presumably about to do that bit

yessss

-

the nazi dude says something about Wagner being a good way to bring Hitler into this century - by playing his old favourite music from HIS century

I know some people have been anxiously tracking Mary as the big bad stuff and this again is like last episode with the guy on the farm talking about cutting off from the world and being at odds with the technology. Of course the difference is he used to get it and willingly cut himself off and made himself ignorant, while Mary is willing to learn and managed to master charging a phone and texting back over the course of the episode, which for a sudden arrival from the early 80s is a freakin’ feat.

Anyway Hitler if he makes it here at all is gonna be another person out of time, resurrected in a world both different and the same to the one he left behind… And the Thule decide to regressively usher him into it this way

I’m also reminded of that A+ post on Tumblr about Captain America waking up in the modern age and they have the whole charade of a war time hospital to ease him in and he sees right through it (because modern bras as well as the wrong baseball game pfft that’s not the point) and busts through to the modern world

So anyway I just paralleled Steve Rogers, Hitler and Mary Winchester in one thought and my head hurts

-

Re: Sam psychologically profiling Dean, his response to Dean and the grenade launcher is hilarious but also he’s emotionally managing Dean again: “we’ll get a chance, it’s okay” talking him gently out of it while trying to be respectful of Dean’s needs while he’s still feeling emotionally ropey (I typo’d that “emomtially” and I think Freud is peering at me through the gap in the curtains. Fuck off Freud.)

-

They DID have a silent conversation somewhere about handcuffing Christof up for his own good (when is it ever :P Although now I seem to recall they did it to Linda Tran in 8x07 BUT Buckleming treated her terribly that episode so that being an example of the handcuffed person NOT breaking free and coming to help anyway is a bad example)

Anyway more Winchesters on the same page about some stuff but then immediately showing an emotional gulf between them with Sam behaving as the mature adult managing Dean - maybe a bit too much; is this a case of give him an inch (last episode) and he’ll take a mile? On the other hand, Dean’s pretty much at least not just telling him to shut up

-

also the grenade-launcher heavy promo suggests Sam is in the wrong here and Dean may seem to be overreacting but it was a necessary over-reaction.

Sam’s response to Mary leaving has been definitely filed in “under reaction” and he’s trying to be supportive and positive and I don’t think he’s actually said anything about how it hurts, and I’m feeling one slow burn plot HAS to be what is between him and Mary in bad blood or angst re: her demon deal, so his repressing this and dealing with it by burying himself in hunting (YEARS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) is a terrible sign that he too is going to break… Dean on the other hand is being reasonably open and messy in the sense that even if he isn’t talking about it sometimes, he’s showing the hurt, and expressing it in other ways (like being kill-happy) and it’s not great for him in the short term really as he’s sloppy and angry and all, but on the other hand sometimes you need a grenade launcher for a room full of unkillable nazi necromancers whose goons completely overwhelmed you in a fight earlier the same day and only didn’t kill you because they bolted because their target did…

-

(I am feeling like there’s an inclination in fandom to be critical of Dean’s characterisation already this season and I think 2 things are going on - one he’s never acted like this before but he has good reason to be acting this way and “ooc” doesn’t cover when a character changes and acts reasonably within that change and season 11 ended with a huge heaping of development before we even got here and even if Dean’s backsliding it’s from a weird place… two I am pretty sure the emotional focus is turning out more on Sam this season and we’ve come out of at least 4 years of DeanDeanDeanDean storytelling, probably more though - I feel maybe we have to go back much further to Sam carrying anything as much as Dean does, so I think in the Dean fans side of things the change in the balance may feel threatening that he’s being misrepresented… I feel like they’re doing more with less space while Sam fills in the weighty moments. To me this isn’t taking anything away from Dean but I can see how it’s being told differently and it does feel it)

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Okay I’m glad they’re just doing a blood transfusion because I was getting worried Dean shot poor Ellie

-

(yes I have been spoiled that he kills hitler - that’s all I know)

-

anyway weird sacrifice here - Ellie getting drained of blood, but the nazi is just gonna give up his whole body, possession style.

Obvious parallels to Lucifer here although I think the common thread this season is speculating about Mary in conjuction with that, realising what you said, and sticking your fingers in your ears and singing loudly

-

(… they… might not…)

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anyway vessels = bloodlines = got to be the right, strong, proper bloodline

-

for no reason whatsoever we emphasise this now at this point in the wider story

-

lalalalalalala

-

Anyway how do you process being embarrassed for this guy’s Hitler impression, asking for a friend

it’s utterly surreal to try to pretend he’s Hitler without the whole costume thing - like even just the moustache to latch onto to link the characters?

-

*attempts to close own mouth manually* so that scene was… something… I guess Hitler’s gone crazy in the watch? Or he was cracking before the end… definitely a bit of coming back to life and knowing the war is over, the crazy plan worked and he’s clearly in a time when he can NOT be Hitler the failed Fuhrer but knows if they’ve got the means to finally bring him back, then they have picked a good time… I don’t know. I don’t want to analyse him. This whole thing morally, intellectually and just… generally… skeeves me out

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okay maybe sharing a body also contributes? He seems to be in literally two minds if he’s accessing the memories of the Thule guy

-

“What do you think I can do with Tvitter”

I’m afraid someone beat you to the punch, mate

-

^ things that immediately dated this episode before it even aired

-

yay Ellie

-

Sam goes to check on her as well, leaving Dean to the fighting - I was wondering why it was Dean who killed Hitler in particular, just in the abstract (I had a whole day crammed awkwardly onto various trains with no space to open my laptop and one spoiler to go off… :P) and it turns out because in the middle of the fight Sam crawls off to check on the girl suffering massive blood loss - even this was a Sam thing

-

“if you can’t time travel back to kill Hitler, wait for him to time travel to you and kill him now”

-

^ needlepoint embroidery on Dean’s bedroom wall next week

-

Uh anyway I had a point I was going to make before I let the episode run too much and got distracted by everything, which was that Sam was having a similar reaction to Ellie (and ME) about the surreality of it all while Dean actually takes one look at Hitler, assesses the situation and I guess is so good at dealing with weird and just rolling with it that he goes straight to the sort of expression that one would have finding themselves in the room with an actual Hitler who LOOKED like Hitler. I find that a very interesting character thing about him. Especially as he’s seriously goofy at many points through the episode and as soon as it sinks in he killed Hitler and the danger is over, a new goofy smile breaks out on his face and the serious feeling disappears

-

“I’m going to get t-shirts made” shut up we know you do embroidery

-

“I killed Hitler, I think I deserve some pie”

Sam’s expression about Dean vs pie is very … that’s nooot what this was about, Dean. You weren’t rejecting pie yesterday morning because you had unresolved killing Hitler issues

-

he’s probably going to have to wait for a little while to talk to Dean sensibly again. “Dude, you left all your dishes in the sink -” “killed Hitler. you do it” “why do I have to do the grocery shopping I did it last week…” “You  mean right before I killed Hitler?” “you can’t stack laundry on the table in the libr-” “Hitler”

-

Anyway Sam is still analysing his brother

-

Dean’s still not addressing his issues

what’s new :P

-

this episode avoided like 18 disaster scenarios I modelled in my head so I honestly have no idea how I feel about it except for the fact I feel like the bizarre terrible Hitler impersonation is probably the least worst thing that could have happened?

More Aaron.

Cas mention?? Nah.

Dean’s been consistently erratic and weird for a while but I still feel like someone’s gonna blame that specifically on this episode’s writing rather than analysing it as part of a wider pattern, which has been helping me not feel like he’s out of character as I explained earlier

Sam’s doing great this season though :P

(and again - since most of the fandom I interact with is not particularly Sam-focussed, I’m worried about seeing reactions against this, even if not everyone’s noticed exactly why they might feel that way, because the stirrings about Dean being ooc seem to be a start to this as I follow these trains of thought back to what’s going on with Dean in the show and see how he’s acting and being written…)

(Maybe the main problem is Dean’s stuff CAN’T move on until Mary is around again - which will be next episode - and I feel like we’re going to have a weird bias that Davy and Merideth are Sam fans and Yockey may be a Dean fan, but they’re just writing to what needs to happen. This is a wild guess but if Sam stuff overwhelms Dean stuff in an episode WITH Mary I’ll be surprised - next episode should be picking this thread back up properly now Dean’s had a couple of episodes to deal - but it’s been off to the side as Sam comes to the front to deal with stuff he never even expressed while Mary was around, because of the very very different natures of their issues with her… Both last episode and this one clearly focuses on parallels of Magda and Ellie to how fucked up Sam was by Lucifer’s plan, aka the fun extra curriculars Mary signed him up for years before he was born, and it’s IMPORTANT the show deals with that, and the way Dean has to deal with Mary is very very different and told in a completely different way.)


	6. 12x06

tl:dr I’m glad I wrote Yockey some shitty fan fic in his honour long before we ever knew anything about him because I feel like that investment paid off

  
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I’m not sure what my expectations are for this episode - everyone was pretty hyped about Yockey as soon as we heard about him because he sounds really interesting. Since promo photos I’ve been existing in a state of confused dread about how easy it would be to get a Bechdel test pass with multiple main female characters but also that I really really don’t want Billie to be chatting to Mary or Jody for any reason except starting a book club…

Well, we’re reassured Jody isn’t bacon by Kim and I’m assuming Mary isn’t either because the plot chugs on the episode after this. But. Yeah. I feel bad to socially ostracise Billie but that’s how it is :P

Also: Billie’s been Dabb’s carefully treasured OC all through season 11, and this is her first reappearance and she’s been trusted with another writer. I’m taking that as a sign of faith in Yockey.

Anyway of the actual plot of this episode, I think we’ve got basically nothing to go on so I’m assuming a whole lot of angst about Mary and a bottle episode. I like bottle episodes. And Yockey is a playwright so I’m hoping well-suited to the format. You better deliver, Yockey.

-

Awarding a point out of the door to the recap editor for layering Dean’s knock off Wendigo speech to Mary about saving people, hunting things, to clips from actual Wendigo hunting. If nothing else, the old fall back of using Dean’s speech from that episode has been replaced because no one knows who that pipsqueak season 1 Dean voice is when he says it :P 

(I kid, but seriously. I haven’t even heard that line for ages and hearing an episode start with “saving people hunting things” in Dean’s season 12 voice is unsettling because after the number of marathons of this show I’ve done, when vast stretches of episodes start with that? It’s genuinely odd to hear that line again but different :P)

For the whole theme of new beginnings and doing things a different way, it’s an excellent and very very meta way to show this, because it’s the “typical” expectation of a Supernatural episode - the most generic opening even in the later seasons is to slap that phrase at the start and then montage some of their best kills to date. 

But then of course the words are different, delivered to a different person, and the key phrase is the difference between “i think dad wanted us to pick up where he left off - - the family business” and the succinct “this is our life” from 12x01. All the uncertainty is gone, and it’s no longer “just” a job, it’s everything about them, even if those 12 years were as long as it took to really really sink in and take hold in this way and for them to start to find some comfort in this life (Sam especially, since his last attempt to get out is 2 seasons later than Dean’s, but he’s also expressed this sentiment himself several times in the later part of Carver era to Charlie and Eileen, though of course it’s more complicated than just that, he’s at least content to be doing what he does for now).

And with these lines delivered to Mary, in 12x01 we could only guess how horrible it felt to her to see that but now we know much better how she feels and why she left. The fact Dean told her this so earnestly is probably a large part of WHY she needs space when it comes to specifically relating to him (The worst thing she could imagine was her kids being raised as hunters). Which of course we have the promo scene from later in the episode where they meet Mary again and she and Dean have the very uncomfortable conversation showing how they struggle to reconcile each other. So starting with this conversation isn’t just a “lol we’re hunters” line like it is many times, but completely subverting that to ask a hell of a lot more questions about them and what they do.

-

Okay I’ve drunk enough coffee to chase away some of the sleep-zombie state I was in (ugh I woke up EARLY to do this and have nowhere else to be… How horrible :P) Time to watch the episode

-

Oh yeah the promo from last week showed demon smoke for a fraction of a second and now they’re giving us a demon 101 reminder. Wonder what the motw is /sarcasm font (we should really quit watching the recaps and promo stuff until after the episode, at least for motw :P)

This is specifically using the demon from 2x08 as a reminder, who is very small fry in the grand scheme of things, even if that was an epic scene. I literally just went to IMDB to spoil myself to see if it was the same actress as the random girl from the promo photos for this episode but it’s not (cool backstory though to find out what did happen to her) and I do feel slightly racist now as the demon from 2x08 appears to be a much whiter girl now I look at them side by side >.> (In my defence… season 2 is really de-saturated and this was all filmed at night - everyone looks really pallid :P)

They pretty much just showed her being exorcised and smoking out, so I’ll assume the demon/reminder of that episode isn’t too important >.> Though Crossroad Blues was where Dean really had to come to terms with the fact John made a deal to save him… again, I’m endlessly fascinated by what’s going to happen with Sam dealing with Mary and the fact she made a deal that DAMNED him 

(hi I watched 4x22 last night, if season 12 was making me emo about Sam before, you’ve seen nothing >.>)

-

This also edits that Mary texted back in 12x04 by just… not showing it. I was having some discussions last night about Dean reacting to Mary in that promo scene, and one thing I was thinking was that Dean has regressed again because the last direct interaction we had between them (in the story that we are being told that should convey to us how they feel, not for the characters themselves as Dean implies Mary’s texted several more times since and we don’t know the contents of those texts) was her text and the positive note 12x04 ended on as a result. 

Of course 12x05 immediately opens with Dean not feeling like pie, but I think one last kudos to the recap editing, for showing us a great example of how in a traumatised mindset like Dean’s, he can forget the promising steps forward and only the negative remains. Dean’s consistently harped on hurt and betrayal and guilt through the show and been unable to forget/forgive (himself and others)/heal etc and even when he seems to make a positive step forward he slips back or later it’s revealed he still harps on the thing after an apparent milestone. It takes only a small push for him to immediately regress to his lack of trust in Sam (aw geeze the last thing I watched before this was Dean telling Sam he will never ever trust him again at the end of 5x01) or his sense of abandonment with Cas. Now with Mary we know that despite that tiny progress, her silence and I assume sudden reappearance in their lives will be all that’s needed to tip Dean back right to where he was at the end of 12x03 when she’d just walked out the door.

(I guess some people might be negative about the show regressing character development that actually happened on screen by just pretending it didn’t happen, but I find it more constructive to wonder why it’s changed, and this is too soon and sudden for it to be unintentionally forgotten, since that was only 2 episodes ago :P)

-

This is your daily reminder that I love Mary Winchester

-

The running part of the cold open, especially with all the werewolf-y growls, reminds me a lot of Dean being chased by hellhounds - the kid also superficially reminds me of our current young Dean. Dean is 1 years old at this point, right? I’m gonna take this kid as a Dean parallel for now.

Coming right after the THEN ends with Dean talking about Mary ditching them and families needing time apart, the fact she’s out here in the woods killing werewolves is specifically interesting to me for that reason. Since the “mary was still hunting” spoiler was first floated, I’ve seen speculation that 5x16 is going to get lightly retconned in our expectations that it seemed John was to blame for their separation, but if Mary was disappearing off to go hunting while she had an infant son, for whatever reason Mary has for doing this, there’s obviously the fact she was “ditching” her family (to do a dangerous job that could get her killed without telling them where she is while she has a new baby) and taking time apart from them to be herself - which could put a strain on the marriage by making it seem she’s having an affair.

(Honestly I’m reminded of the unprovable theory I read a long long time ago (maybe in the wild mass guessing section on TV Tropes?) that Azazel is Sam’s “real” father via John getting possessed, which I’ve seen speculated as a reason John was so upset and left if he has no memory of knocking Mary up - throw in her taking a lot of time away from home to hunt and… yikes. I basically set no expectations about that theory being remotely canon although if we’re walking around the circle playing Dabb Dabb Goose, you remember who wrote the anti-christ episode :P *stumbles into and knocks over my pinboard covered in red string linking all the episodes*)

Also re: affairs, just the fact the hunting life and civilian life are set on such extreme ends to each other, to dabble in one while pretending to be the other is basically “cheating” on which part of the life you want to live. I keep coming back to Dean and Lisa this season, but yeah that also broke them up as Dean was essentially “unfaithful” to suburbia in 6x01 (imagine there’s no djinn and he’s just sneaking off to dodgy hotels after work instead of coming home, caught sneaking around in the neighbour’s yard… :P), then they tried an open relationship with hunting, but the strain was too much… And of course Dean’s heart went with hunting and that was foregone before hunting hurt Lisa >.>

-

Dean gets his ridiculous bandanas for everything habit from Mary - I’m guessing that’s one of hers she gave Asa for the cut on his face

-

Oh no Asa is so precious and I love him (I’m only up to him writing a postcard to Mary :P)

“Thank you very much for saving my life. I would not be here if you didn’t save me. I hope to see you again. - asa”

This kid wrote to his grandparents to thank them for Christmas cards without being prompted and you know it.

-

Oh wait he’s Canadian of course he’s really polite.

-

One of the cases he pins to the wall is about Mounties getting killed.

-

Also he’s wearing plaid now.

-

Oh no he’s still writing to Maryyy

-

Also he has a huge beard now - is this just because he’s Canadian?

-

“I don’t want a new car. This is my lucky car” Hi yes so you’re still Dean I see

(After several clips of him kissing girls in that car >.>)

I hope that guy he was talking to is someone I can aggressively ship him with just out of spite. :P

-

Asa nooo (i knew you were dead from like literally everything we’ve been told about this episode but shh)

-

I guess that was a “hunting accident” except it also looks like a suicide so it’s really hard to tell.

-

What I find interesting about him stacking up all his postcards to Mary is he’s probably creating a much more coherent picture of his life as a hunter (when she had no idea he’d grow up to be one) than Dean has offered Mary in John’s journal, no matter what amendments he may have made. Asa has written directly TO Mary, never knowing she was dead almost all his adult life, filling her in on his journey. Since I watched 4x19 recently, I’m drawing a parallel as well to Adam, but again like with him to John, it’s deeply subverted with Mary, starting with him not being a biological child. But her postcards are going to be more than cause enough for Dean to be deeply jealous of the bond this man had with Mary, even if she was totally unaware of it - I’m worried he’s going to catch her reading the post cards, read them himself, or something like that.

I do hope Asa also offers a path for Mary to accept Dean growing up as a hunter even if it got Asa killed… Of course the fact he was killed and died bloody just like every other hunter is more than enough to continue scaring Mary away from accepting this reality she’s dropped into (the recap included her thoughts on that along with a dead hunter montage)

-

PYJAMA JODY ON HER DAY OFF WATCHING NETFLIX

Yockey you are doing right by our girl

-

THANKS FOR SENDING CLAIRE AND ALEX ON A DATE ILY

-

Pfft of course Dean is still telling everyone he killed Hitler.

This is of course, blanket permission that if he DOESN’T open with that to Cas next time they talk, to assume that he phoned him up immediately, and every single ficlet from last episode about their phonecall is canon

-

“………… thank you??”  
“You’re welcome :3 :3 :3”

I love them

-

I love this family so much look at them eating shit food and having extremely metaphoric conversations about chick flicks.

…

Because Sam, oh Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam *pats him on the head and takes his pizza away* *sits on the coffee table in front of him and starts eating the pizza while I drag out my pin board covered in red string*

I would first like to point your attention, Samuel Eugene Winchester (didn’t they give him a middle name at some point? I can’t remember what it is) to you TELLING Dean he loves chick flicks and Dean conceding that fact, not 7 episodes ago. I’d also like to stick this picture of Sam’s Smuggest Smug Face To Ever Smug in 7x12 between these two episodes and pin some string into it, because the last time you and Dean argued about Dean x hentai (pfft 7 minutes in and I can see Mel in my mind’s eye taking a victory lap for Yockey x tentacles :P) was when you delivered the crushing finishing move of “are you going to watch more anime or are you strictly into Dick” and Dean was fucking obliterated and probably still wakes up in a cold sweat about that one. Let’s rewind a sec - to Dean trying to argue to Jody that she’s one of the badass chicks who don’t fit the chick flick demographic and I would like to zero in on your fucking FACE

as you sit there chewing pizza and hardcore judging your brother. You know Dean likes chick flicks and you are being presented with a unique insight into the mind of your brother here, and you do not waste it after debating how dead this is going to get you to open your mouth.

You know one stone cold fact about Dean: your entire adult relationship (which began in 1x01 - for the sake of argument your childhood ends the night you ran away to Stanford) has been based on “no chick flick moments” and knowing at the same time that Dean is the most chick flick guy in existence, though it may have taken you a long time to understand that and to begin viewing him this way knowingly. In fact it took you 12 years plus a couple of rounds of Hell each and a death bed confession style moment to get there but you forced him to admit this fact. You are existing post-“no chick flick moments”. Dean knows this. You know this.

You are on the other side of the curtain.

Dean is projecting and you’re *in* on it for once in your life. 

You’re not being blanked out or having anything you asked deflected. You’re seeing Dean construct a facade, pretending to be all manly and not liking chick flicks and shit (probably so he doesn’t cry at the ending of this one tbh) and so here he goes presenting a ridiculous suggestion to Jody that there’s a way to be cool and a chick but not go for the chick flicks, because obviously Dean is one of the cool chicks who is too badass for chick flicks, like Jody. 

You’re just… “no, Dean, no. You’re badass and love chick flicks and it has literally no correlation to how manly you are.” (You don’t know that Dean called himself a thirteen year old girl the other day so you’re missing some of the puzzle of Dean’s struggle with masculinity and feelings right now but you sure as hell know more than Jody does)

So you’re in a safe space to tease Dean and what do you do? (Well the writer of this episode clearly boned up on Jody episodes and hit on a gold mine in the process) You know that this whole “you love chick flicks” thing is of utter secrecy between you and Dean, you’ve been entrusted with that; you know Dean has accidentally or not put you behind his armour in this conversation, and you can’t betray that and crack it open and tease him for the very crack in the armour you got through, but oh boy your brother is asking for it and this is one of those learning experiences you need to make sure he will never, ever forget. (It’s for his own good.)

Whether it’s being around Jody or “strictly into Dick” is something warming in your soul that you wake up at night smiling and say “I said that” and pat yourself on the back and roll over and fall back asleep, you’re thinking it now. You remember it. Dean’s pretending he doesn’t like chick flicks so what’s out in the public domain? “Animated japenese erotica chick”

*sound of a cheap fighting video game* ONE HIT K.O.

Dean probably should never have told you he likes chick flicks

Cuz if he’s going to pretend he doesn’t in front of you, well it’s only fair to remind him of what he IS on the record for watching (while in his season 7 downward spiral where he did not give a fuck any more about who knew what he was doing because he thought you were all going to die via pissed off Godstiel) but of course at the time you saw him watching it when he was utterly bereft about Cas’s god rampage/betrayal. When you were teasing him about it later, you were constructing your own false binary of anime or Dick. Cool chick or chick-flicks chick? 

The cool chick watches anime porn instead but you know that’s not all Dean was doing, just like you kNOW he likes the fucking chick flicks in the first place so the whole thing is a joke.

You know that he’s pretending he doesn’t. 

You know he wasn’t really watching anime but you were worried about his obsession over finding Dick. You know he was watching anime after losing Cas, which hit him SO hard and you knew it at the time. You’re saying, I KNOW YOU, DEAN. You’re full of crap and I love you, but I know when you’re ~subliminating~ and I know when you’re projecting - I told you so when you tried to pretend you didn’t like chick flicks a few weeks ago and it was your deathbed confession that you did. And I’m gonna remind you I know you so much better than you think because I remember this shit and you, dear brother, like chick flicks and you like anime porn, but even then I knew you better.

(And seriously, though, season 7 and 7x12 in particular (thank you Robbie, who also named Dick for us in 7x06) set up that binary and turned the entire thing into a metaphor; some seasons are subtly homoerotic. Some end with Dean boning Dick with Cas… 7x12 was spectacular for eroticising Dean’s obsession with Dick via language - the last shot when you watch the deleted scene that was actually the end of the episode cut for time, is Dean settling back at the laptop, opening it up, and reading about Dick erecting a tower - metaphoric for what shit he’s looking at instead of anime and confirming Sam’s anime or Dick binary? Naaah. :P)

-

“Be proud of your hobbies. Makes you who you are”

^ all I really needed to say

-

“He killed five wendigos in one night”

(hang on Yockey I’m still clutching my stomach and moaning about Ellen’s name being dropped)

Anyway re: Wendigo discussion caused by the “saving people hunting things” thing, that ^

-

FOX MULDER omg I love Asa TAKEN FROM US TOO SOON TOO YOUNG

Anyway yeah he’s Dean’s type and/or Dean :P

-

Oh Jody :( :(

I wonder if she like-liked Asa a little - they kept meeting up for coffee and she’d only known him a few months. Gosh darnit stop killing people Jody likes before she ever has a chance to get married.

(She also is connected to someone who is “in the life” in that case)

-

Also: re: the parallels to 11x15, he’s a hero figure to Sam and Dean because of the tall tales from Ellen, but someone Jody deeply admired as person. They agree to go to see him off sort of on principle that he was a badass, very much the same way they decided to go to the wrestler’s funeral because of family connections, professional admiration from afar, and sort of just respect for what he did in his job

-

“We never go to hunter gatherings” “Dad always said they were trouble”

Oh boy that dredges up alllll the early seasons anxiety about mixing with that world; hanging at the Roadhouse was as much as we’ve ever seen them do, aside from crossing over on hunts with other hunters. In most of Kripke era, other hunters represented a direct threat to Sam and you can imagine John kept them separated for the sake of not having hunters learning too much about Sam (since we don’t know how long he knew about Azazel’s plans, although some speculation is the entire time and Missouri told him more than enough to be scared and running the entire time after that) 

Obviously once the boys are adults or nearing that age he can’t stop them mixing but he CAN tell them boogey stories about hunters to stop them seeking out that company. And there’s been a lasting effect if they just casually don’t hang out with other hunters even now years down the line they’ve never really… learned to integrate into their own culture because of the remove John kept them from it. Jody (and later Mary) are sort of going to be re-introducing them, bringing them in I guess in a way which moves them past the bizarre toxic masculinity of the culture and giving them a second chance to become familiar with their own peer group via THEIR connections to it…

(Even Ellen being the one who told them the stories about Asa originally - they could have picked any hunter the boys crossed paths with who wasn’t a total dick from the start to like, last week :P)

-

WELCOME TO CANADA

I’m so glad this episode is hyper aware of how stinky the boys would be after a hunt tbh because I’m always joking about the Bunker smelling like feet and BO - thank you Jody for your concerns about driving with them

-

Oh hey 100pts to Lizzy there’s a black motorbike outside Asa’s house guess who gets a cookie

(I’M SCARED)

-

I’m wondering which of the other cars is Mary’s and there’s a blue one very like the shade of her car in 1980, but there’s also a beige car right by the motorbike and I’m fascinated by Cas and Mary parallels (also a red pick up truck)

It could be any of them - who IS Mary Winchester? 

-

There is a second motorbike behind Asa’s truck, also black. We have a false lead on Who Is Mr Ketch - if he’s here at all

-

Asa’s mum is cool. I like her already :P “LOUD hunters” Also she knows Jody - how serious were things between her and Asa :P Although by the end of this conversation I’m remembering the MotW may be a demon so I’m suspicious if she’s possessed by the way she snipes about “eeeveryone’s sorry”

-

Meanwhile, Dean immediately hits the beer, starts bonding with a huge guy who home-brews the stuff.

You could probably do better than bottle opener key chain guy

-

“Wait, your brother here? Sam?” “Ye-” *guy legs it from the room*

I hope Sam’s gonna be okay… Hunters really do tend to want to murder him. Perhaps he’ll turn out to surprise admire him instead of finding an excuse to lure him out back and murder him :P

-

They’re legendary, folkloric figures even in their own community, which also doesn’t help bonding. What with no one being sure if they’re alive or dead at any given time.

Shrodingers Winchesters

not easy to call up for a drink

-

I’m beginning to feel some social embarrassment/awkwardness vibes for Dean here. He’s got a lot in common superficially with Bucky and Randy (oh lord those names) but as soon as they ask him what stories he’s heard about Asa, I can see Dean is in over his head in bonding with other hunters. At least the gritty, generic macho type. There’s a sort of aggressive undertone here just by challenging him for the stories he knows to prove he belongs and it’s not that they don’t know Dean isn’t a great hunter because the Winchesters are legendary, but they don’t know if he’s one of THEM and he’s… not.

He likes chick flicks and anime and sometimes he’s into Dick :P

-

Also Asa only just died and they haven’t heard anything new about him since season 2 which is also a thing

-

They’re so out of the loop.

-

“I didn’t know the rules” yeah, see, that’s their drinking game and if you know superficial Asa stories you walk into that one, which Dean did: he proves he’s got some surface awareness of their world, but the actual SOCIAL part of being a hunter is totally missing. In a few moves Dean is painted as an outsider. He’s a sociable charismatic guy so I can imagine him sinking into this group in a short amount of time, but he’s essentially getting hazed right now, and it’s an isolating feeling.

-

Oh no “You think the stories about Asa are crazy, you should hear what they say about you” and he walks off, leaving Dean to reflect on how he might look from the outside.

I think the important question I have is how well everyone knows about the Mark of Cain and the whole Drowley business. Do hunters KNOW Dean has the King of Hell on speed dial and took a romantic three month break with him a few years back?

-

What would they even make of Cas

One of these 2 things he can laugh off. The other… Eep.

I’m feeling like the fact we got a lesson in Dean’s walls before anything happened is really important here

-

It’s this guy!

“mostly how to seduce men” HEY YOU WERE GONNA BE MY FAVE ANYWAY BUT YOU KNOW WHAT

-

You better not fuckin’ die

-

I’m doing a trust fall here Yockey

-

Hey this guy is Garth’s friend. Sam’s like, super hitting it off with the witchy siblings and this guy jumps in the way. did Sam just get cockblocked? :P

-

They’re defending Sam’s honour! he still has a chance.

I think they’re stoned tbh

-

They’re right though, you don’t just go ASKING people about when they were possessed by Lucifer.

so that’s 3 episodes in a row reminding Sam of this anywho

-

*munches popcorn* Holy shit I think they actually were hoping to hit on Sam and this Elvis (?) guy cockblocked them.

Daaang, cute siblings, you’re brave :P

-

I now ship Sam x these guys

-

They’re so pissed Elvis drove Sam off

-

Aww Asa had an angel blade. For display purposes only - I guess during the angel fall he bumped into some, but the last couple of years have been all quiet when it comes to angels, so it’s now a curiosity and pride of his collection

-

If Sam doesn’t tell Dean about the cute siblings and Dean urges him to hit it, I’m going to riot

-

Sam may or may not be feeling it but he could always give the brother’s number to Dean

-

Alternate problem: if I don’t see Dean and that guy coming out of a cupboard after a brief time skip, I’m rioting

-

Oh no Dean still doesn’t see them living to old age. Haven’t you got the message?? EVERYONE KNOWS YOU DON’T DIE FOR GOOD. It’s your curse - you always come back. And one day you’re going to realise that you’re back for good and have been for a very long time, and you’ll be able to make your peace

maybe when dire shit stops happening to you so often that I’m still not even sure your ex knows you’re not dead (next episode we find out if Cas has told Crowley that Dean was never actually dead :P)

-

One or more motorbikes just left the premesis

-

Hah, Jody was seeing Asa i was right

that is

Poor Jody :(

-

I’m always willing to fall back on Jody marrying Sam. I’ve never recovered from the way Sam smiled so fondly to get her on the phone in 10x08. I felt the OTP heart flip, I’m not going to lie

(plus also then we enjoy the incredible knot in Claire’s family tree, of her adoptive mom being married to the brother of her unrelated to the adopted mom adopted dad (who is also technically her biological father except not because he’s dead and someone else entirely different)’s husband)

-

Oh my god that death was well-done in a horrifying way. Something about the way he disappeared into the kitchen and we couldn’t see him - I guess it was like we were watching it from down the hall with the (hopefully possessed) cute sister’s POV on lying in wait for him, and then his slow walk back aaand *dead*

-

Do I get half points for talking about one of the siblings being in a closet with someone

hashtag too soon

-

MARY

-

JODY’S REACTION TO MARY

(we’ve been over this but :P)

I’m just remembering her conversation with Dean last time she was around, about how Dean wishes he’d had that motherly advice growing up about boyfriends. Anyway she knows exactly wtf is going on here in emotional terms even if no one’s going to explain why

-

“WOW”

“… wow”

*from the other side of the house faintly “woooow”*

-

Dean remains extremely bitter about Mary’s Finding Herself journey

having just mentioned Claire I’m reminded also of Amelia, who we paralleled to John and Mary with her and Jimmy, although with Amelia as John, but I think that was billed as a “finding yourself” journey as well as finding Jimmy? I don’t remember, Robbie’s not around to fuck up his own continuity and force me to re-watch Angel Heart in the middle of other episodes any more.

-

“Extreme, excruciating detail how you killed hitler but you neglected to mention your mom is back from the dead” Okay Dean is a dork but I do laugh at his priorities :P

-

“No big deal”

-

Oh god “what if I’ve changed” Jody too has become a hunter since her family died. “what if they’ve changed” though - she remembers them better than Dean remembered Mary, so this has to be pointed about her perspective on them changing.

-

OH NO MARY AND ASA’S MOM NOOOO THIS IS MUCH WORSE THAN DEAN AND JODY

“you’d be my age”

#awkward

maybe she’s a vampire

maybe it’s maybelline

-

“You’re the reason my son didn’t become an astronaut”

*intense flashbacks to Dean saying he wanted to be a rockstar*

-

Oh nooo

The mother outright blames her and pushes the box of postcards at her.

-

It feels wrong to be eating popcorn as she lays into Mary for her son never marrying, never having kids, hunting became his whole life…

-

Eeey where’s all the old meta about hunting as a lifestyle being queercoded for these exact reasons

-

Sam knows his family too well. “Fine. it’s fine.” “are you sure?!?!??”

I did not factor Mary throwing the postcards to Sam as a thing to be upset about but they’re playing hot potato with them

who’s gonna read them and cry

-

Anyway now she’s opening up to Sam

“All of this is on me”

-

Sam trying to explain how Dean feels instead of going for how he does despite recent events grinding his face into his history as a special child with its boot.

Mary’s one action meant to save someone actually condemned them. Am I talking about Sam (that is, her hypothetical white picket fence Azazel sold her that would include Sam) or Asa

-

But she was remembered as a superhero to Asa

-

/cut to Dean drinking in the car park

please see the other bike

is it even still there

-

Sam calls Mary out on still hunting after Dean was born, and gets through to her \o/

I’m glad to see her smiling

Of course that was Sam talking about Dean’s issues to Mary for her acting as a proxy when Dean wasn’t even in the room to be spoken for. He might change and get used to her sticking around and get over this without having to say anything if Sam can integrate her back into the family but idk if it counts on the Dean and Mary side of things for them making up, and there’s been a whooole lot of reconciliations which basically started “we’re hunters and work together so let’s do that” that DON’T manage to address everything between them.

On the other hand Sam has given Mary some more tools for understanding Dean by explaining how he’s scared she won’t love them any more because they’re hunters so she can try to get through to him from the right angle maybe.

-

Mary recoils from seeing Asa’s grown up, old face when Sam pulls back the sheet. She has to reconcile the past with the present - I suppose this very vividly represents the death of Dean the little boy to her; idk if this is ominous for Dean himself but I was very worried about Magda’s mother killing her son - I feel like it’s all metaphorical and for now much more worth discussing as metaphors about letting go of the past or Mary’s accidental harm to her children (the kid Magda’s mom stabbed got stabbed in the chest, just as Mary froze Dean’s heart when she was possessed in the previous episode) - there’s a lot of death in these episodes which are very metaphoric (even Hitler as a worst-of-John mirror) and I’m really hoping that going with the very subtle, quiet, deep emotional themes of this season, are all metaphoric for the sort of journey of recovery they’re all on.

of course being this show it’s hard to shake the idea it’s all foreshadowing for some grand, terrible event, in which case Dean will be super dead and it will be Mary’s fault

I hope not >.>

-

ANYWAY I’M SURE THERE’S NO PARALLELS WITH A GUY STRAPPED TO THE CEILING DRIPPING BLOOD AND SAM AND MARY SLOWLY DOING THE LOOK UP MOMENT

this entire season is a long drawn out coda to 1x01

-

Uuuuh, Dean’s still outside drowning his sorrows

aaand there he is

-

BILLIE

“You’re not the boss of me” uh… I’m just gonna… stick a pin in that… for later… *grits teeth and ignores my heart full of Dean and Death nonsense*

Anyway no Billie is her own boss cuz she’s the new Death and I’m gonna die on that hill

and be met by Billie who’ll be like “okay now you’re dead I can tell you you were right about that”

-

“now I gotta chuck you in the Empty so you don’t tell anyone else my secret”

-

I should keep watching, I’m just fangirling here

-

Billie, oh my god, you’re WORSE than Death. He never gave Dean handy tip offs for mundane things like “Look the fuck behind you”

-

The worst part about this is that I’m gonna end up shipping them because if she’s going to be the snarky angel of death on his shoulder, I eat that stuff up; she’s currently filling the Cas’s role in the spooky version of season 4 Destiel >.>

-

With way less emotional intensity of course so I don’t think it’s ever going to topple my need for Destiel, but you know, Dean x reapers… it’s fascinating because like Tessa said, he’s the one that got away :P

-

“Hunters are dying in there!” (and idk if it’s my mom or brother or Jody-the-adoptive-mother-of-my-husband’s-adoptive-daughter-but-they’re-not-married-i-got-to-start-carrying-a-diagram)

“Everyone dies”

Remember how we were all saying how pissed Billie would be that no one died and how in fact they actually managed to come out of 11x23 a Winchester up? :P

-

I was so scared Alicia’s brother was going to get killed but she just backhanded him over… phew. Pls survive this.

-

you know… it sure would be FUCKING CONVENIENT if they’d confirmed Sam had his anti-possession tattoo or not in the last 4 episodes if this episode is turning into demon roulette

-

Worth noting the demon escaped out the chimney but Dean is outdoors AND warded so he probably won’t be wandering in later with red eyes - the demon will probably just skip him over entirely

-

is he barganing with Billie? Don’t do that, sweetie

She’s obviously playing you if you’ll owe her. First rule of striking deals with supernatural entities: if they mysteriously say you’ll owe them without an explanation it’s probably, you know, a good idea NOT to do that :P

It’s interesting that she’s so willing to do this though - as in, even considering it. Even if she’s not the “new Death” (like, for the sake of argument :P) she’s carving out a big chunk of real estate for herself on the Supernatural monopoly board. Death recongised that Dean was a big fish early on - big fish in the “can bend Destiny” way - and moved the moon for him once. Billie first was introduced to us by reaching out to Sam in a way that was breaking the rules of non-engagement. Now we’re in a place of relative peace but she’s still cultivating these sort of deals and willingly engaging with the “big fish” - the legendary hunters as the only human pawns deemed worthy to keep in your pocket. Death once charged Dean to find out about the souls then gave him the chance to sort Godstiel out. Billie got them the soul bomb when it was the best plan on offer - now she’s sort of cultivating him for her own purposes if she’s reaching out, giving him this option, but with the obvious result that at some point she can and will use him if she needs him.

Or she’s just fucking with him.

-

Crowley learned a long time ago that if you can build a hotel on the Winchester square on the monopoly board you’re going to win the game - guess she could be figuring that out too :P

-

Oh dear that guy went to get a drink — and I didn’t pause it and by the time I typed that he was showing off his red eyes.

Lol @ Dean being punted through the door though. I’m 100% willing to believe Billie kicked him through by the butt

-

Dean of course immediately tries to take charge of the situation by saying people should stick with him if they want to live

-

Okay, now Dean’s knife-fighting… I’m reminded of 9x11 just because of his jacket and scruff (did I mention his scruff yet - dear god I hope the Big Giffers bring their A game to this episode because I want my dash to be nothing but the largest size portrait pictures of Dean looking tragically beautiful that they can offer, or I’m going to have to make them myself)

-

I mean also because he’s matched equally to a DEMON do you remember when those KICKED THEIR BUTTS

-

the show really needs to get better at dislocation/dismemberment special effects. Minus 10 points

-

Also awww Garth’s friend - you were a jerk but still, GARTH. FRIENDS. I feel bad for Garth >.>

-

Hunters in an emergency *everyone produces a light*

I always forget that their knife is super rare. I suppose the fact Asa had an angel blade does mean there’s 2 knives that can handle a demon in the house

-

Maryyyy don’t wander off on your own

Okay you’re getting the knife

good.

Now don’t get possessed

-

Jody thinks the same thing - which probably means Jody is possessed tbh, trying to sow seeds of doubt

She better not be bacon :P

-

Okay yeah so Jody is possessed if she’s yelling to kill Mary

-

OKAY KIM IS TOO GOOD AT BEING EVIL I DON’T WIKE IT… that little head tip the second the demon realises the gig is up. Oh no.

-

Guys possessed!Jody is horrible but also my favourite thing for years - Kim’s getting such a good time out of it

She’s all squeaky and cute and SUPER EVIL

-

Hah, called it, the twins are Asa’s kids

(i did not type that anywhere earlier, it was just… something in the back of my mind after the truck montage/seeing them for the first time)

-

The mom hating her son hunting so much she’d sabotage his car

oh dear

-

YAY TEAMWORK

-

I mean aside from the bit where Bucky killed Asa

Oh NO that story is tragic, since I also went back and checked and Bucky was his friend from the car scene in the opening montage… The fact Asa didn’t have the angel blade means Bucky fights him out of being over-protective, and Asa is accidentally killed in the ensuing scuffle. I’m a little bit nervous of the role the angel blade plays in that fight, metaphorically. Since it pulls Cas into the parallel but I’m going to have to leave this to someone else to puzzle out because I can’t make a full scenario stick with where we are right now aside from maybe a trite but important message about having your angel (blade) with you for protecti - shit I almost got to the end of that sentence before remembering 9x03 :P

point stands

-

anyway friends/brothers in arms accidentally hurting each other and making the situation 100x worse and not taking responsibility - I’m worried.

-

I did wonder about the blood in the opening montage when Asa died and it was by hanging but I figured he got roughed up first. In hindsight I should have remembered this was the Cluedo episode 10x06 wished it was and paid closer attention to the fact his death was probably more plot important :P

-

Aw nooo Jody echoing Cas about Sam and Dean being good men - “best i’ve ever met”

*wibble*

-

“they’re not the problem” aaargh Mary you’re breaking my heart

-

Oh crap Billie nooo I knew she was going to be pissed about Mary being back.

I told Dean not to listen to her >.> Everyone probably would have been fine if he hadn’t gone in - he wasn’t pivotal to defeating the demon at all, even if he helped a bit with the teamwork :S

-

BILLIE STOP TALKING

I knew I didn’t want her interacting with Mary >.>

This is essentially what Tessa and Dean talked about in 4x15 about how he felt in season 2 - though Dean got to say it himself to her

Anyway that season ended with Dean selling his soul to bring Sam back so … yeah

-

If they get through the end of this episode, I’m super worried about the next round of Winchester angst being Dean dies (because Mary), Mary gladly sacrifices herself like Dean did for Sam >.>

-

“I’m here to offer you mercy” Oh god if someone had said that to Dean at many points in his story…  
.. this was also what Amara was offering him last season

-

Oh god Dean IS the angel of death (I’m at “reapers don’t kill people - rules”) but I literally made the parallel to Appointment in Samarra during their conversation earlier… Dean wasn’t reaping, he was being Death, doing the killing FOR Tessa to reap these people…

Appointment in Samarra is pretty much one of my favourite episodes so…

Anyway if Dean’s now got an obligation to kill his mother because he owes Billie (UNFAIR DEAL HE JUST WANTED TO GO THROUGH A FRIGGIN DOOR) it’s as bad as the weight on him in season 9 & 10 with the Mark of Cain, which was compelling him towards fratricide. Jeeze, he does not get a break for long.

-

“Then I guess you’re going to have to wait” ILY Mary YOU BADASS WITH A WILL TO LIVE

-

“Winchesters”

ILY Billie but for completely different reasons

-

“Can we buy you breakfast at least” Good. I like that Mary is asking for more time but this is the sort of middle ground I wanted - that they could at least hang out together and socialise and get to know each other on a much much easier platform without so much bloody obligation all the time.

They’re also going to get bacon which is trumping pie as the family food I guess

-

ANYWAY IT’S OVER AND I’M REALLY GLAD YOCKEY WAS EXACTLY WHAT WE ALL HYPED HIM UP TO BE.


	7. 12x07

this can really just be summed up as “don’t watch 5x04 within 24 hours of this episode”

I’ve made bigger mistakes but

-

I’ve “accidentally” seen 3 spoilers that endear me to this episode immensely (sssh it’s my fault for skimming my notifications), so I’m assuming it’ll be a bit of wacky fun. Now I can’t even remember what else I was thinking about this episode, because the sneak peek was also super cute so any reservations have wandered off for now.

-

Oh gosh the recap getting right in there with Dean being weird and jealous about Cas n Crowley, set to Cas turning around at the bar to see Crowley there flirting hello… At this stage Crowley doesn’t have any real emotional leverage over Cas (I mean, I just re-read all my season 9 rewatch notes from the summer this last week and then watched 9x16 so Crowley seems utterly defanged compared to him waltzing off with demon!Dean :P) but to compare to the last time Crowley worked with Cas, obviously he has nowhere near the power over him he did in season 6, so I’m tentatively filing this all under “harmless fun”. Especially since however weird and jealous Dean is (and the recap is trying to suggest to him he should be because of the framing of Cas n Crowley starting to work together like that with the rom com meet cute in the bar) it’s all on the level, they’re going to work together this episode, all of them, and they all know the deal. All the other stuff is just little petty emotional beats between the Dean/Cas/Crowley love triangle for now.

The real question is: does Crowley know Dean is dead or not because so far in canon aside from some odd lines suggesting he might know anyway, no one’s actually TOLD him, no one has any reason to tell him (“no one” is Cas here :P) and honestly, him bumping into Cas working alone could easily suggest to Crowley that Cas is working alone because Dean is dead, not because Cas nobly and selflessly went to hunt Lucifer alone so the Winchesters could bond.

Crowley also doesn’t know Mary is back, although that’s for later I guess :P

-

I like these silly satanists… I was cracking up along with the one who snapped and couldn’t take it seriously. They’re pretty sweet and harmless satanists all things considered; I’m tentatively sad about whatever horrible thing happens to them, unless they turn evil when actually faced with their dark lord.

This is why you don’t find random summonings on the internet, though.

(I’m, like, deeply impressed with the “how the heck do we get Lucifer back from rotting at the depths of the ocean” explanation though :P)

-

Wait, how did no one take a minute to laugh about Berens dunking Lucifer in the ocean twice in two seasons? I just remembered Casifer showing up dripping wet in 11x14 when Vincifer showed up also dripping wet and pissed off.

… you could say… drenched…

-

Poor random satanist who couldn’t take it seriously. RIP :P

-

Poor other random nerdy satanist who had no idea this would actually work. RIP but seriously that was a terrible idea.

-

“My mum loves you” though… Oh dear, the recap didn’t HAVE to remind us that Sam liked the guy’s one album that didn’t suck. You know, according to Sam.

Lucifer is so disappointed about his fandom, though.

Time to just wholesale steal another one?

-

Also the whole “my mum loves you” and then the jump to the promo scene, with Dean’s “LURIFEC” tiles while playing with Mary… Not ominous? Continuing to not really think about the whole Mary could get possessed by Lucifer thing a lot of people are worrying about :P

Although now we have high def versions of the episode to peer at, you can see it says “LURIFEC” and then “Submit” underneath it.

I’m assuming there’s a level of irony at work here so it’s not that straightforward, we just don’t have all the story yet.

-

I feel sorry for Jared having to diss Words With Friends out loud on screen, considering all the behind the scenes antics :P

-

More seriously, should we be worried about Sam burying himself in work seeing as he’s got such a list that he can complain to Dean about not doing anything. Sam only went and said they do that to distract themselves when they’re not doing so well… As it was pointed out when this promo aired last night, Dean seems really happy and chill right now, and he’s clearly doing a lot better about the Mary thing because they’re having some fun like this, but Sam apparently doesn’t even know that Mary’s learned to operate a phone so well so they’re maybe not even texting. If he’s nobly trying to give her some space and has to ask Dean how she’s doing after walking in on him having quality mother - son bonding time over getting his butt kicked at the game, then… yeah. He’s missing out >.>

-

“Incoming Call

Cass”

I hate everything and I’m done with this show. I thought Berens was on our side D:

(yeah, I know that probably wasn’t up to him… Still, I think that’s the first real proof Dean or ANYONE outside of Metatron spells it that way? :P)

-

Sam seems to have shared the MoL phone background, unless Dean made it, so they’re like super nerds about this which ever way it happened

-

no, I’m still sulking about “Cass” I can’t do this

-

Oh no Cas’s face… Save him from Crowley.

I guess Crowley does know about Dean being alive then if Cas is calling Dean in front of him, however he side-eyes Crowley and grimaces. I don’t think Crowley would mistake the “hello Dean” for being anyone else.

-

Okay these articles are great. :P

“Ladyheart will be returning and promoting "Bloody Messiah”“ says the caption under the photo. "Hell must have really frozen over this time.” “But out of the ashes of late 80’s mullet rock comes our savior”

It throws in a comment or two about getting the band back together, putting aside old feuds, and a lot about Vince’s social media empire he suddenly gave himself. (Which, and I hate that I now have to type this, calls back to what Hitler wanted to do two episodes ago)

“Ladyheart signs deal with DeathSiren records” - don’t mention sirens on this show :P

“their massive hit Robot Love” - got to mention robots… this is Act 2 still? :P

“rising from the ashes of punk on the west coast” - more ashes

I can’t believe I’m about to type this but “culminating in the 1985 TV special "Ladyheart: Founding Fathers”, a fictional biography of the band which saw its members travel back in time to inspire the writing of the Declaration of Independence"

there is a god: “audiences and music lovers alike were left cold by the television special”  
…   
“which led to tensions within the band. Drummer Charlie French was the fisrt to leave the band…” Omg Charlie, no. Is this also mirroring the Winchester’s story and commenting on how terrible everything got in season 10? :P

“When their 1987 double-album "Jezzabelle” failed to crack the top ten best sellers list, fans and critics alike saw the writing on the wall" [insert that image of the graffiti in 11x19 which says “Some ppl take this too seriously” re: the writing on the wall… obviously the show has always put writing on the wall, and it often plays a part in the show’s visual subtext… nice to have a little validation that writing on the wall is a means of reading between the lines to see what’s going to happen :P

-

I am loving the invisible line between posturing metal star and Lucifer with “Go to Hell”

-

Okay he didn’t say so much but Crowley *is* pissed he had to find out second hand that Dean wasn’t dead after all - I can see it in his eyes. I will assume Cas filled him in… eventually… when he HAD to. With great reluctance. :P

-

Oh my god Crowley just confirmed it’s 2016 what the FUCK is going on between the set department and the writers. Why do they do this. Why was 11x12 set next year. Why did Magda die in 2016 “a few years ago” before 12x04

whyyy

-

*resumes bashing head on the desk over this*

-

I do like that Crowley called them paleolithic, and Lucifer had to heal himself with a fossil of his own wing. It’s a not too subtle comment about him being a relic :P (I mean, also in this story: his part was done back in season 5 and yet…)

-

Hah, okay I love that Crowley owns Hollywood… I mean it’s none to subtle social commentary but back in 2x08 they alluded heavily that a lot of famous people who died suspiciously young may have had some demonic help, and that was just random crossroad demons. Having Crowley sitting on top of the entertainment industry smoothing the path to fame for various celebrities seems a fairly natural conclusion to that. I do like learning more about the fingers in pies Crowley has because some of the most interesting stuff to me about him is all his resources and the way he runs stuff when things are going smoothly. I’m guessing this goes way back to when he was just king of the crossroads and he would have been investing in it for decades, and it’s just one of his most reliable resources. Probably mostly runs itself :P

-

Meanwhile: Dean is still hating on sunglasses indoors. I’d say he has total double standards about skinny jeans on dudes vs yoga pants on girls, but A: he noticed and B: his own jeans are pretty damn tight compared to the early seasons these days :P

-

Also he assumed Sam could hear him while he was monologuing about LA so there is that

-

Remember how we were once trying to deduce Sam’s music tastes? I still think they’re a total mystery, and that this isn’t the half of it, but it’s pretty hilarious this is one of the first things we know for sure he likes for himself. Also, the fact he knew how to describe his ~really boring history podcast~ to Dean so he clearly has actual information about that stored somewhere in his brain. Meanwhile Dean likes history with “gladiators and outlaws, pirates” because that’s the stuff of movies. “Outlaws” is presumably his cowboy fetish, so… do with the rest what you will :P

-

“Listening to it is research” I love Sam.

-

If that’s Sam’s ipod and not his phone, I’m laughing forever about how different it is from Dean’s pink ipod, although tbh these days you could probably put all that music on a phone and only have one device.

-

Dean’s really obsessed with how these bands looked (he was bitching about the codpiece in the recap, and now he’s complaining about the rainbow wigs) and Sam is trying to tell him he’d like it if he listened to it - the lyrics are hard to make out but I think they’re actually something about the “open road” which should appeal immensely as driving music… Sam also tells Dean he actually likes it tbh :P I think he thinks Dean really is just projecting about this and not wanting to be known to like something that seems to him to be super gay to like and admire the men who sing it. I do feel like Sam’s really coming to the end of his tether with Dean projecting and deflecting >.>

-

I think even just the cold open was more interaction with humans that aren’t Winchesters or someone Lucifer intends to possess that he’s ever had… going from that to a zilion twitter followers is… wow :P Face-to-face if these assisstants are human then this is also more than he’s ever had in his life.

-

Also considering Lucifer chills an entire city block around him, it’s probably quite environmentally friendly for him to stay in LA… is he really hurting anyone here?

-

I mean, probably. He doesn’t seem to have had some demons come possess Vince’s entourage or even fellow bandmates - they MAY be there just because of the irresistible curiousity of Vince asking them, after all this time. Of course the one he’s talking to now seems to be the other remaining original member who stuck with Vince on his tours as the other band when we first met them…

-

Pro tip: wandering around calling humans “humans” does not do a very good job of convincing other people you are also a fellow human.

Although the bandmate did say Vince had a “i am a golden god” phase before so who knows, maybe he and Lucifer were weirdly compatible, which is why Vince hasn’t completely melted in an hour.

-

A beach! So close! Sooo close… TFW are all in the same city as a beach…

Don’t tease me like this

-

Jesus Christ Dean and Cas have been in frame together less than a second and Dean checks Cas out and comments on it. This has to be a new record.

-

Holy shit Cas

holy shiiiiiiit

“at least i don’t look like a lumberjack”

*Dean’s entire life flashes before his eyes*

RIP Dean Winchester

This is especially hilarious because I watched 5x04 yesterday evening, which of course all tragedy and drama aside (which… is a fairly big aside, granted) ends for these two with “don’t ever change” and now Dean’s like “wow Cas, change maybe?” and Cas is like “fuck you I get human social conventions like fashion now because I have changed and now I know you have terrible style”

CAS.

-

Maybe he found out Dean spells his name “Cass” and is appropriately pissed.

-

The best part of this is because of spoilerly promo photos we know Cas does not change, and Dean goes and gets a hot new jacket and now it’s because Cas has told him off for dressing like a lumberjack? I literally… *goes for a walk*

-

*returns with tea*

-

Poor Cas…

“talking and talking and talking and talking…”

Re: the Dean/Cas/Crowley love triangle… Dean should at least be feeling better that he has nothing to worry about here :P That jealousy was irrational anyway (although catch me being over the framing in the recap for a long time :P) but there’s got to be something soothing about hearing how irritated Cas is with Crowley.

(and in a more serious way, the reassurance that they’re “just” working together in the sense that Cas has nothing to be sketchy about, has no weird issues with Crowley or sense that something’s not quite right. Cas being utterly fed up of him is the absolute natural order of things, and so it’s much safer that Cas is pissed off with Crowley than being sketchy or beholden to him in some way)

-

It is interesting that Crowley still acts like he owns LA and has a distinct home advantage here - it sort of makes it like Lucifer is trespassing on HIS territory while in season 11 of course he was trespassing on what Lucifer thought was  his in Hell. I mean Crowley is 1000% motivated to be pissed off with Lucifer anyway but it is kind of fun to have that flipped.

-

Crowley is still wearing sunglasses indoors. Dean is presumably judging the hell out of him.

-

“Well it looks like there was some kind of a fight” Oh Cas. Never change. :’)

(Character development done right: you can drag certain parts of his personality whichever which way, but others… Just leave them as they were, that’s just how Cas is and it’s perfect :P)

… I should not have watched 5x04 so recently if Dean’s going to be going around picking up cute pink panties from the back of the sofa

I totally lost it when, off-screen because Sam was doing stuff, Dean threw the panties to Cas. Holy crap stop. STOP.

-

Somewhere there’s footage of him doing that and I am putting together a team to break into the studio and steal the footage of it so I can see their faces. Who’s with me?

-

*Cas looks at them in bemusement and then just drops them on the floor*

-

“Lucifer is a dork? That’s good to know.”

-

I think something else is happening in this scene but Dean is messing with a guitar

-

*nervously sucks my own tooth* wtf is going on with that :/

-

Oh god no. I hope he didn’t make her do it :/ Poor lady.

-

I was concerned about the characterisation behind Lucifer actually wanting anything from humans like sex but I guess he’s experimenting in the ways human devotion works very one-sidedly, and seems to like the “i’d carve your name in my chest” side of things better. Since that’s what we see on screen.

-

Poor Cas. “Yay.”

I suppose they could have left Sam or Dean to watch Crowley, but… I was writing in my 9x10 rewatch about how I think it’s set up in that bit where Dean makes Cas get in the back seat with Crowley, for Cas to somewhat/entirely miss the point of it… Dean was still pretty terrified of Crowley at that point, and was trusting Cas to look after him by keeping Crowley from hurting him, and that it was a sign of trust from him to Cas to put Cas in charge of Crowley… I’m guessing this repeats the whole “you’re a champion Crowley babysitter now, good on you” feeling with Cas being left out in the cold from hanging with Sam and Dean and very obviously feeling the social rejection of it.

… I’ll just wait here then…

-

Dangit leave me alone Edlund

-

Lucifer continues to be unsatisfied about the attention he’s getting - his PA seems to be stepping over the line to willful ignorance of evil after seeing the blood all over the carpet after he asks for fresh blood. I’d probably move to Canada and then send my resignation letter by post somewhere between here and there at that point :P

Anyway blah blah more social commentary between religion and twitter followers. I do find it interesting how the show is so old it goes back to the “use a fake search engine” days, but at this point things like twitter and snap chat are so pervasive in culture you can’t just mock up an alternate (and as Google has become more pervasive, the show has started making witty lines about Google despite this being a “search the web” AU of reality) and it’s sort of transcended the point of being “just” a brand name you’d err on the side of avoiding for legal reasons. This episode is heavily 2016 in a way that’s going to make it a historical artefact one day just because of the use of social media, phones, games, web pages, and all this commentary on the effect of twitter as a stand-in for religion.

(I think this may be more general commentary than the hitler with twitter comment, as we don’t see him browsing twitter to get a hit of adulation, and he’s mostly using it in a PR way rather than in a personality cult way… It’s simply being used as a measurement of his reach and success from the angle that celebrities would measure or care about it if they were egotistical enough to follow the numbers constantly… I’m assuming we don’t parallel Trump unless he starts using it to incite hatred, and until then it’s more of this LA and fame critical commentary)

-

Oh no Dean and Sam have got dressed up.

Dean is wearing sunglasses indoors.

Save him.

-

KUMA

HEY BABE

LOOKIN’ FLUFFY

I’d better gif him and add him to the pre-existing “Kuma is a star” gifset

Kuma goes to hollywood

-

(not much happened in the last couple of minutes except for some commentary on all these very human people defending Vince/the actual literal Devil because it was their jobs or they stood to gain from it. If the Devil makes them money and boosts their careers, then, well… they’re working for the Devil

(now that is a bit more Trump commentary :P)

-

Sam judges Dean for drinking the vegetable water which again is a little moment of Sam vs performing Dean, which seems to be a pretty consistent theme. Idk if this episode’s going to end with the classic BM scene being Dean admitting to liking hair metal, but Sam’s getting really squinty at Dean over it.

(Also I suspect Dean is quite enjoying the rock star looking, INCLUDING carrying around useless sunglasses indoors)

-

There are so many exterior shots this episode. They really are enjoying the setting :P

-

“Hey Bobo, you got to write a 25 minute episode” “are you kidding - why?” “we need 15 minutes of exterior shots of LA”

-

Oh no, the awful record guy died >.> I mean he was a jerk, but still. :P At least the PR lady seems to have got out of it if she has quit and doesn’t come back. Good luck PRing regular evil after this >.>

-

Ahaha self-burn… Crowley bitching about the handcuffs not being good enough and Cas being like “they held me” and all… Crowley conveniently forgetting that he was the original character who was stuck in them for like 100 years in season 8 & 9… Conveniently omitting that he’s had so many woes with being trapped in them himself :P

-

Oh no Cas… “he’s my responsibility” Sam quickly reminds him they’re all sort of to blame here one way or another…

(Well, in this specific instance, Dean is actually not responsible for anything more than the domino chain of taking the Mark of Cain)

Anyway Dean being all concerned about Cas. I’m living.

-

Aw no they’re still agreeing Cas and Crowley go up against Lucifer.

Crowley’s really not selling himself today: Cas says he’ll last 3 minutes, and Crowley, talking about the overall time he can buy them, is like, “make it 4”

Glad to know he thinks he’s literally a third of Cas.

:3

-

Ooh hey it’s the set with the dividers from Hammer of the Gods. Nice. :3 Lucifer walks in and kills 2/3rds of the other band members in one go - he does like making an entrance.

-

I am moderately disappointed that the remaining member of Ladyheart has just had it revealed that “Agent Beyonce” is not in fact Cas’s real name

I suppose he could think it’s Agent Castiel Beyonce, which has a really nice ring to it tbh

-

*spits tea* Lucifer called Crowley “spanky” … I’m just remembering that line from 8x01 Dean had about that random demon - what was it, “Spanky the demon - you’re the one who uses too much teeth” or something.

-

the confrontation is going well… Lucifer saying that he needs love, because he had a really jacked childhood… Pfft. He wants to ditch the whole Lucifer identity because of its bagagge and I guess have a fresh start? Anyway obviously last season ended with Rowena and Chuck giggling about parenting to each other at the end of the world - Crowley’s arc as an actually sympathetic character starts with the Trials and “I deserve to be loved”. Although of course Lucifer’s going about it all in a totally terrible way that’s not asking for any sympathy, as he’s being cruel, murderous and false in his attempts to get love. As they point out, not even for him, but for his vessel and Vince’s corner of the celebrity world.

Meanwhile, you can almost, badly, stack that up against Crowley’s experiences, but Cas is about as angry as we’ve ever seen him - “You think this is fun?”

I was wondering yesterday evening if there’s any room to give Lucifer a redemption in the style of the other angels like Gadreel, Naomi and Metatron who had to be reminded of the original mission (some of them, Gadreel especially, really just lost their way - Gadreel even defends himself that he “loved humanity” in 9x18, before his redemption, talking about his past failings) - again because I watched 5x04 last night and Lucifer was talking about why he fell - because he refused to love humanity. At least from his perspective, or the story he tells. :P It does seem like the wayward/bad angel arc is to come around to Cas’s POV on humanity, then die somewhat morally redeemed. (Or just die because they don’t budge - to go all the way back to Uriel, who was spouting Lucifer’s anti-humanity lines long before we met the guy in person)

At the moment anyway Lucifer seems completely and utterly iredeemable to come around to love humanity, as it’s clear even being Vince and dabbling/exploring a little more in actually relating to humans (this is his first ever episode bothering to interact with random humanity!) he’s not having any impression made on him from their actions, still is completely contemptuous, and just wants the buzz of power and control.

Anyway his ridiculous bodycount of people this episode is definitely making it much harder for him to come back from this, and it’s reassuring me a lot they won’t try to soften Lucifer up too much. However this ends, reconciling Lucifer and humanity is going to be tough to nigh on impossible… We’ll see >.>

-

Poor Cas :(

Probably more that Lucifer called him a dullard than the getting beaten up - that happens all the time >.>

-

This is the best use of Sam being giant that I’ve ever seen, re: him holding the doors open with his massive moose arms, and the crowd pouring underneath them.

-

I LOVE that Lucifer magic has the same faint roaring effect as one of the early demon-roar-y title cards. I was about to say season 4 but I think that’s the one with all the shrieking birds.

Why can this show not be normal.

-

Anyway Sam being appropriately freaked out about being in the same room as Lucifer - yes good.

-

CAS

I LOVE YOU

-

That is the most metal thing Cas has ever done and he once dug a bullet out of his own stomach and then shoved it in another angel’s eye.

-

I’ve literally just paused on him smashing Lucifer up with a guitar to reflect on Berens writing Cas and how he started off with our meek and miserable Steve!Cas

-

I’m sending Bobo a gift basket

-

I can’t believe no one’s mentioned God leaving again until just now.

(I watched 5x03 as well yesterday and nothing gives me shivers like Raphael telling Cas “you live in a Godless universe”)

-

Okay, this speech about everything being meaningless as a result is also tidying up more Lucifer characterisation loose ends that I was seriously wondering about, since they had a really fair point to ask why he’s fucking shit up again aside from “because I’m Lucifer” :P

-

I love how Lucifer is melting as he makes this speech

His comment about “distraction addicts” aside from being general social commentary also includes Cas (see also: calling him a dullard) because of the Cas and TV thing from 11x18 - what I find most brilliant about that is it lumps Cas in with humanity. :P I mean it always sort of did, but Lucifer is saying it, so. >.>

-

“You know what my plan is? I DON’T HAVE ONE”

This actually does make him one of the most dangerous villains on the show (pfft talking about stale re-runs, he also was back in season 5 for the complete opposite reason of having a very very scary plan :P) because he could do literally anything and all he’s really going to be doing is causing more chaos and death along the way and they can’t predict when or where if there’s no Biblical omens to be following or anything Lucifer specifically needs for any of his plans. Season 5 was never random destruction - any time we got on the case of any of the atrocities there was some precedent… I mean not that they could do much about many of the things like the earthquakes, but it all seemed to be happening to plan and to a purpose. And it’s much easier to write villains who have a plan - even a really bad one, like Metatron, who is defeated BECAUSE his plan sucked, by his own plan.

Also this speech in general is brilliant for capturing the terror of 2016 and powerful people who are just swinging at the world out of random hatred but don’t seem to have any plan except for getting power and using it for whatever the hell they like >.>

It would be nice if Lucifer could somehow be defeated by humanity in general somehow; not Dean as a representation of it, but actually something affected by the general population, unknowingly or not.

-

All this episode is working to explain very well why next episode is apparently Lucifer in the White House, and I just wish Buckleming weren’t responsible because I’m way too nervous of them to enjoy the idea despite this being a good set up.

(also because we have to go into Christmas break on that episode so I hope like hell it’s not absolutely dire)

-

Anyway, so long Vince.

I find it hilarious they cast a rock star to play him and Dean played more guitar this episode than Lucifer did.

-

Also this episode is majorly overrunning because we’re at the 40 minute mark now, and I blame all the extra establishing shots.

-

Cas looks fine again already, and Crowley is a mess and slept through the final confrontation. Pfft. :P Dean actually has some grudgingly thankful words for Crowley, after checking on Cas.

He calls it a win because they managed to save some people; Sam has a much more miserable but accurate look at how the wider picture is a huge loss, which also does incidentally have some GOOD words to say about the power of celebrities to affect people. Anyway Sam echoes the concern that Lucifer is as dangerous as he ever was and they don’t even have a grasp on what he might do.

-

I find it interesting that Sam needed the final pep talk from Dean and got the sad closing moment look. Especially since I started the episode concerned about him. I am really really feeling this as a “be worried about Sam” season.

-

Anyway I need to gif the fluffy dog from earlier. Brb.


	8. 12x08

uh - ?

Quick list of mistakes before I get started -

\- if watching The End was a bad idea before last episode, I’m pretty sure watching Abandon All Hope right before this is going to be a bad idea in a less ironic, amused eyebrow raising way. Somehow I’m always on an Edlund episode, and that makes me judgy and compare things to him, which is unfair because even while he was on the show no one else stacked up against his sense of theatre when he was having a good day. :P It’s one of my favourite Lucifer episodes and he’s all strange and alien and full of purpose and everything he’s lost in season 11 & 12 (not said in a particularly wanky way because it’s a good decision for his character or at least Berens finally actually sold me on it last episode by explaining it in a very similar type of speech to Lucifer trying to convince Sam of his purpose in 5x10 but obviously, like, completely inverted) - but yeah something I don’t trust Buckleming to get right either…

\- anyway yesterday I felt really sick so I was awake until 4am and now I have a stinking headache

\- tried to guess the entire plot to Mittens while I was waiting for a download, but then gave up when I finally had the episode and still hadn’t guessed anything except tangentially for some odd Dean/Cas/Crowley beat, so I went to bed :P

Quick list of mistakes I avoided though -

\- watching the episode at 3am over Skype on Mittens’s TV through her phone to my laptop

-

I think the thing about Bucklemming recaps is they always have to throw the kitchen sink in to explain all the elements that are going to be in the story. This is a better than normal one only going over like 3 separate elements :P It even segued nicely between the hunt for Lucifer, and Cas specifically hunting Lucifer, and hunting Lucifer with Crowley, and Dean being like “wtf I hate Cas working with Crowley to find Lucifer” and then Cas being like “… yay (I also hate working with Crowley to find lucifer)”

I have no idea to what degree the love triangle affects this episode but it was important to recap, and it was in the promo scene as the main point of tension and is the only spoiler I have for the episode… I’m feeling reasonably confident at this point in the season that it’s where all the Destiel heavy lifting is, and I described it last night to Mittens as FINALLY we have the proper set up for not the sort of classic “triangle” that’s more of a chevron like it was when Dean was in the middle, but since season 6 Cas has kept clear of Crowley - now they’re all connected, and what’s great for the Destiel arc is that it’s firmly placed Crowley *between* them, like he was back in season 6, but now it goes BOTH ways, that Dean has history with him, Cas is working with him, and Crowley is smugly situated right in the middle and can make EITHER of them jealous and flirt in either direction…

-

So I guessed this was Lucifer immediately, but the crucifx thing was really silly. Brb, going to go find and reblog the gifs of Dean flipping the crucifix on the wall in 1x18 with the scaaaaary old woman :P

SAM (FROM 12 YEARS AGO)  
(Laughing) “I was sleeping with my peepers open?” Hahahaha.

-

Oh cool we’re starting straight with Dean and Sam joining Cas and Crowley. Does this imply they weren’t together? Or is this Team Actually Need To Frigging Sleep At Night joining Team Good God That Was A Boring Part Of Being Human

-

Does Cas still have his truck

-

Oh and right back to the Bunker. I guess we just needed the establishing scene to set up the dynamic.

The thing I’m taking from that is that the dynamic it set up is that Sam’s here because he and Dean are joined at the hip, but it was really just Dean getting really really really really fed up with Cas and Crowley working together - he tells them BOTH to stop, both times to do with letting Crowley be a part of the team, the first to do with his pretentions at being an agent TO Crowley, the second time when Cas humours Crowley by calling him by his Agent Zappa name, staying in character and essentially treating Crowley’s part as a serious member of the team.

Part of the recap was specifically picking on Cas saying that he had to go hunt Lucifer alone, as well as Dean’s issues afterwards finding out he isn’t, so tensions are running high over Crowley’s presence in the middle of the love triangle, and this is actually pretty well set up. (I mean since this was the promo scene that was obvious before the episode was even out, but the placement of the scene as the first thing to happen is good)

Also, Cas staying “in character” as it were is interesting for my own obsession with Dean & the agent persona. We know Cas likes to play - that “Agent” “Agent” thing from 9x09 - and that Dean’s history of getting way in character himself, and then using the persona as a secondary identity really seems to rub up wrong against this… I won’t say it’s because Dean tends to get flirty with authority figures and other dudes most often/comfortably as the Agent persona, except that he totally does, and Cas also playing at being an agent is like, dangerously close to some sort of roleplay fantasy :P Of course there’s almost always a reason why this doesn’t work out for them (I’m literally just able to think of that way Dean looked at Cas in 8x10 that you see in a lot of “checking him out” Destiel gifsets and “beer and bacon happy hour”  here for times when Dean felt ABLE to flirt, because other episodes had enough extenuating circumstances to throw Dean off his game completely. I guess the bar scene in 9x09 when Cas is being flirty is also him enjoying being human and hunting with Dean and they’re all still in their agent-y suits…) Anyway in this case, what could have been a fun visit to a burned out husk of a body with Agent Cas is also ruined by Agent Crowley being here at the same time, and Dean is already completely done and he’s been on screen 1 minute.

-

Can Lucifer literally not wear crosses because they turn upside down on him :P

-

Okay this episode is giving me whiplash because we’re on scene 3 and the credits are still rolling :P I am assuming this is going to get veeery cluttered

-

What the heck my next comment was going to be that they’ve ditched Cas and Crowley for some reason and then Dean’s like hey let’s go investigate an actual potential place where Lucifer could be sitting RIGHT NOW and if it’s him we’ll CALL

I’ve got to chalk this up to him snippily giving Cas a taste of his own medicine working without him to hunt Lucifer because that’s just really reckless.

-

He also called them the Scooby Gang, which I do appreciate. They can fight all day about who they are, since Crowley has a lot of opinions about that and I’m sure no one else would agree with his. :P

-

Did Dean fuckin knock on the door “Hey Lucifer, are you home? We thought we’d come over for tea?”

-

*sees the dead nun and immediately goes to check this isn’t the same stairwell as 9x17 where Josie and Henry were in the convent* no, but amusingly similar.

-

What does Lucifer have against nuns anyway

-

Like, I know the vessel was already dead but OH MY GOD I can’t believe you went in there and could have fought Lucifer all by yourself if you were a few hours quicker to find him… *shakes Dean*

-

Okay, here’s our Generic TV President, I guess - a completely harmless “want to be more godly for America” justification to possess him and now Lucifer is sitting down to chat, still lying to him about “public sevice”

Since Dean mentioned Obama more than enough times, I’m guessing we’ve entered an AU where neither Hillary nor Trump ran… I suppose the president is going to die and then the SPN universe can have a snap election and go back to making actual political commentary. If not, and he survives, then the show branches majorly from reality when it comes to social commentary… it leaves the characters a lot safer as they’re not dealing with Trump’s America, but really de-fangs the show >.>

-

The fact that Trump is possibly dead since season 7 because he was a Leviathan does, however, mean that this possibly is an AU that always would have happened and this isn’t exactly a season 12 problem but a derailment of reality that started too long ago to do anything about. They also live in a Gwyneth Paltrow free world :P (I can’t remember all the other celebrities Frank mentioned - the Kardashians? I wonder if any of them get casually mentioned later, forgetting that they should all be dead)

-

Now I’m just thinking about how Obama would only just have been elected when the Apocalypse started, and how the first part of his presidency would have been rocked by natural disasters - in Abandon All Hope, THREE towns get wiped off the map, and I think we see at least half a dozen towns get obliterated overall in season 5, without mentioning the earthquakes and hurricanes and fires etc that might destroy more off screen - or events that we missed in between episodes because by 99 Problems it seems almost commonplace to discover towns under martial law or demons going around destroying whole towns that it’s only weird that they come across the false prophet there too. Death chooses not to obliterate a major city in 5x21, but the effect on small town America was devastating. I wonder how that affected election demographics. :P

-

oookay he’s a *really* religious president. Like, his aides are somewhat seeing him as a cult leader if they all kneel around him waiting for him to read scripture to them - more of Lucifer getting adulation, even seeming to be worshipped, and in this case it’s because they see him as a conduit for his own father so it’s GOD’s adoration and love that he’s stealing, not Vince’s fanbase.

I’m not going to feel sorry for Lucifer being stuck doing this :P I do however really appreciate the president guy actor because this is a much more muted Lucifer by necessity - even talking in his head he had to appear like he had America’s best interests at heart to start with. Maybe because I had to rewatch 12x05 recently I’m really appreciating possessed people’s behaviour not going totally ridiculous. You can still see his face when no one’s watching going through some Lucifer-y motions, but he’s trapped by the situation not to ham it up. And Lucifer is SUCH a hammy character.

-

Also I’m really digging Lucifer being forced to say nice things and consider the human condition - since he has such revulsion for humanity, calling us “babies who struggle to walk upright” but as a sort of, talking about himself too in that, I don’t know if he *relates* but it’s dragged him down to our level of trying to express humility and dignity at being human, and… It’s fascinating.

-

And now he’s talking about God and how they need him >.> How does he still have a straight face?

Well he survived the experience… Not sure how much it might have affected him long-term, but it was interesting to hear him have to say all that… And that even though he was trying to meet their expectations of what a godly president would say, these are the specific things he chose to focus on - his thinly veiled disgust for humanity and God turned into nice words in his mouth…

-

I think it’s sweet that Dean sends Cas photos of gross murders to his phone

“saw this & thought of u”

-

“Who won the nobel peace prize? Why don’t we start there?” Well, Obama canonically exists in the SPN world but this feels weird. Did they even remember he had won it in that moment? We cut back to President Lucifer, so it feels like they are making that association…

-

I think he made some of those aides pee themselves a bit when he suggested they nuke another country… Ugh *I* feel sick hearing him say that. It’s too real and scary >.>

-

Huh, well I’m not even going to go there about the Weird Buckleming Dub Con of the episode this time involving Lucifer and whatever issues are involved in him getting between what was previously a consenting relationship.

but “It was almost like I’d never done that before” does sort of confirm that Vincifer never had that wild sex party that most of TFW assumed he had based on the hotel room, and Cas really was right about literally everything last episode. The point about surface text being too easy to read and the subtext buried beneath the too-obvious answer gets more interesting with this line because it textually calls into doubt that moment…

-

however we’re 14 minutes in and I’m really beginning to feel the Bucklemming strain of a lot of nonsense and no actual face time with the characters :P The promo scene was the only one with any discernably interesting characterisation, and Sam could literally have gone on vacation and Dean took Mr Fizzles with him for someone to talk to for all he’s done this episode

-

I guess Mr Fizzles can’t do all the research while Dean goes to get take away food :P

-

Meanwhile: a very long scene about Lucifer considering settling down with a wife and kid

-

Oh dear, trenchcoat Lady owes her soul to Crowley, I assume to get wherever she got in government as trenchcoat Lady.

She’s wearing her shirt like Cas in season 9, but it’s the Original Flavour Trenchcoat, and being a government mook rather than president herself does ally herself with season 4 Cas as a worker bee in the system, but of course indebted to Crowley for power would be season 6 Cas… Basically she’s a whole lot of things at once.

-

Cas grumbles at Dean, yay. Crowley shows up and sasses Sam almost as hard as Cas calling Dean a lumberjack last episode “Can I get you without the flannel?” - much more innuendo-y :P

-

*applies simple math to assume that Cas also meant he wanted Dean without the clothes*

-

Crowley didn’t HAVE to waste time pulling up a picture - he could have just walked in like “welp, we’re screwed, Lucifer is President and none of us voted for him”

-

That’s quite clever to use the secret service to get at Sam and Dean - Lucifer does mention that there’s only 2 of them, and I’m assuming that’s who he means. He underestimates that it’s a whole Scooby Gang now, despite having literally just encountered Cas and Crowley, but I think maybe this is a separation of church and state - use human resources to get rid of the 2 humans after you, and if Cas and Crowley show up, he can deal with them himself. He knows he’s more powerful than all of them, so this is just amusing him. He’s also, of course, trapped, because disappearing from a closely-monitored position would cause a panic among the staffers and he can’t just go flapping off when he has every minute of the day wasted on being presidential. If he wants to exploit this power (he says he wants to keep the job for a while) he has to play within the very human rules and keep up completely reasonable human beaviour or he loses this opportunity because the job is the power, not anything else about this man - drop him somewhere with no context and proof of his job and he’s just another bloke. Selling the idea that Sam and Dean think he’s Satan and want to kill him for that of course uses the truth to paint them as crazy. Lucifer’s getting a bit of a taste for politics >.>

-

Aw Cas is pacing around driving Dean nuts while Sam tries to call Mick. Honestly this episode is too packed - the debate about if they should involve the BMoL again would have been the much more important character thing to focus on and it was SAM who was hurt by them and yet Sam’s the one who got the card off Cas and is now phoning Mick, having clearly taken the responsibility onto himself to do it, but we see none of the process… All the interesting character stuff is happening off-screen; we’re halfway through and this is a Classic Buckleming Plot Episode - possibly one of their stand out examples of cramming in tons of side stuff and having TFW off in the corner reacting and trying to keep up with it through laptops and brief conversations (honestly, in their hands, the Bunker is one of the worst tools on the show :P). Hopefully some more character stuff comes in the second half - their episodes do seem to come in very distinct halves and usually the final 20 minutes would have been great without the first half, or like, a quarter of the build up to them :P

-

I was getting dangerously feverish so I went to have a bath, and carried on harping on this :P

Abandon All Hope in the stlye of LOTUS:

Cold open & 15 minutes of the episode as A Day In The Life Of Crowley, with Sam and Dean parked at Bobby’s using his shitty dial up internet to help Cas out as he flaps around a dozen false leads (possibly bumps into Meg, possibly hooks up with her for no reason :P)- eventually they manage to locate him thanks to a lead Cas picked up going to Crowley’s local grocery store and idk finding a receipt with his name on it or something. 25 minutes in (it was a long cold open, Crowley had a lot of people to kill, torture and make deals with. And probably sleep with :P) they show up at his house and have 10 minutes of a circular conversation that repeats all the major points again after the middle of the episode ad break in case you forgot what they were talking about. With 15 minutes to spare they get the Colt and a tip on Lucifer, and head back to Bobby’s. While they’re waiting for the shitty dial up internet to tell them everything about Death, Carthage, and Lucifer’s plans, Dean and Jo hook up. They all head off and bump into Lucifer in the middle of the street for 10 minutes of action; if Cas and Meg didn’t hook up earlier, they do now :P Also Jo and Ellen blow up somewhere. With about that much attention to remembering that they were there.

LOTUS in the style of Abandon All Hope:

Well I know only half the episode, but let’s say, cold open with the President getting possessed (no aide watching), title card, staff meeting - Lucifer force-chokes a staffer for disrespecting him (because star wars references are cool). TFW are at the morgue - Crowley gets a call from his White House staffer. Everyone else is like “he choked on a pretzel” (because George W Bush jokes are probably still funny, dammit :P) but she knows what she saw. Everyone’s now clear Lucifer is the president and snap into action.

Oh, wait, we’re 5 - 10 minutes in and I’m already caught up with where I am at the 20 minute mark of the episode and I don’t know what comes next. :P

-

I left space for Dean to give Cas the last night on earth speech again

-

On the other side of the halfway mark: Crowley force-chokes a dude and then explodes him for good measure. I’m genuinely more fond of Crowley than anyone else in this episode because he’s actually having some fun and getting to stretch his personality. I guess Cas carrying around a huge dark cloud (and then pacing so it has to sprint to keep up with him :P) is in character and amusing me a lot but he’s literally just in this episode to scowl right now, so as much as I love that, it’s not doing very much for the story :P - though now Rowena’s here and scamming dudes for their fortunes we have a second character with clear motivation and exercising herself as a character on screen for more reason than just sitting at a laptop typing and trying to move the story on via google like Sam and Dean are.

-

I mean there was literally a bit where they were sitting either side of the screen typing furiously while Cas sat on Dean’s table just like, appealing to Edlund above to save him :P

-

“Can I just get my long flowy trenchcoat back and march around in stark pale lighting? I miss doing that”

-

Are they actually trying to tell us Lucifer is falling for the President’s girlfriend? He certainly seems to be enjoying the role… Dudes, this is Lucifer:

CROWLEY  
Lucifer isn’t a demon, remember? He’s an angel. An angel famous for his hatred of humankind. To him, you’re just filthy bags of pus.

that guy ^

I mean like yeah he can grow and change, but it’s sort of uncomfortable for it to happen all in one episode when just last episode his only interest in a woman was watching her carve Vince’s name into her own chest. Of course, oddly, season 5 is helping here - as the president he’s having to “play his role” and all the archangels were obsessed with the idea of personality and destiny and job all being shaped by each other - 2 episodes right near each other have Gabriel and Lucifer repeat the idea of Sam and Dean being perfect matches for their archangels, because of job and personality, and Gabriel at least was convinced that teaching Sam and Dean to play their roles would change them enough to say “yes” in Changing Channels… He wasn’t just beating them down but wanted them to UNDERSTAND that their roles were shaped for them…

Lucifer now being forced to actually have this job to get what he wants, he can’t duck out of its responsibilities like Vincifer not bothering to learn to play guitar. The only way Lucifer gets what he wants is to play the President flawlessly - having to do that prayer at the beginning was his learning experience of just how in-character he has to stay at all times.

… still, there’s justifications and then there’s just it feeling really really weird and wrong that Lucifer would fall in love immediately so I hope this is subverted and he really doesn’t care about her, but is just using her, horrible as that is to say on her behalf :P For the sake of good writing, it can’t be as saccharine as this.

-

Meanwhile, Cas is me trying to carry hot drinks (ALSO he was bringing them coffee… I love him.)

RIP 2 of the Bunker’s special tea set - Kevin smashed another… how many are left? Considering the World’s Best Dad mug got smashed in here too I think we need to get them a new set of mugs for Christmas

-

…

I was really tempted to get up and go for a walk just now :P But I still have my mug of hot tea so let’s stick it out…

I’m immediately 100% less convinced there’s a subversion on Lucifer’s interest in the President’s girlfriend coming if this is where they’re going with it - maybe not saccarine, but provided she survives, he’s now got a huge vested interest in her, and whatever he does with her and even if it turns nasty, they’re, well, stuck with each other >.>

-

I also feel annoyed Mittens didn’t give me a cold, warmer, hot, kind of tease about this speculation because I was literally inches away from it but wrong part of the equation :P Although that could have been WTF enough to keep me awake and watch at 5am…

Not that I’ve been keeping obsessive interest in the ingredients of the angel fall spell popping up again, but they have, here and there :P I think Gadreel was associated with nephillim in the original lore, and the grigori angel in 10x20 was technically again in old lore connected to Gadreel, as a fallen angel and those were even all lumped together as “satan” I think, for that reason, as a sort of group name for fallen angels. The cupid came back in 10x18, so there was a little clump of repeated elements by Robbie at the end of season 10, ticking off grace, cupid & a nephilim in one go, but the nephilim being very metaphorical in the way you had to go read outside the show’s presented lore and look up the names. (It was interesting at the time because the 10x23 spell mirrored the angel fall spell but of course all the speculation about using Cas’s grace was for nothing - still, it leant to the feel of the whole thing and these references all came after the end of the season was decided so weren’t foreshadowing that got wasted, but had to connect somehow)… If nothing else, it’s an interesting return because they were metaphorically connected to Cas’s fall and becoming human!Cas through the association to the spell >.> Back in season 5 several characters, Lucifer included, linked Cas to Lucifer for falling and becoming like him; while Lucifer is being nothing like Cas, he is now in turn sort of being funnelled through a similar process to how Cas fell and became human, though all twisted around…

-

I’ve had the screen paused on Dean making an :O face for about half an hour as I try to process this and dry my hair and prepare for actually watching on.

I stg if Buckleming make us do another creepy baby arc

(Dean mentions Rosemary’s  baby in the next scene - greeeat.)

-

I like that this road is along a train track.

-

Dean is pulling his FBI identity on the secret service… maybe don’t do that.

-

Aw Cas was late to join the fight, because he got trapped in the car :P

Dean like “Cas, don’t” when Cas finally gets to join them. He probably COULD de-escalate the situation but only by angel-ing all over the place. The secret service have no idea he is because Lucifer only told them about human nut jobs and again they’re not possessed or anything - Lucifer is going it alone and relying on humans to do everything for him…

-

Okay whatever you have to say about this episode, that was an epic entrance and gains 500 extra coolness points for Cas’s use in it :P *casually watches an explosion* *glances around like ‘okay then’* afterwards…

I love him

-

Is this Mr Ketch or what because they really don’t want to show us his face

this is assumedly my last possible moment to guess they hired Rowan Atkinson to play him before the reveal :P

-

(before that, they have a moment where he implies they’re all dogs with “whose hydrant have you lads been tinkling on?”)

… also oh god we’ve gone 5 episodes without any Americans writing British dialogue and I’d almost relaxed about this :P

-

Aw, he’s just some dude

-

Okay now I know his face, FINALLY, I can go to IMDB to see if he’s actually British

Nah, he’s literally some bloke who’s played tiny roles on American programs and has basically no bio on IMDB :P I’m assuming he was cast to look utterly bland, facially - the whole Moist Von Lipwig totally forgettable face thing - you WANT your best agent to be totally unmemorable

-

anyway re: all the speculation linking him to Dean, of course he’s got a grenade launcher that he actually gets to use

-

Okay, so Sam called all sneakily, which means he either stole that card from Cas or Cas gave it to the Winchesters in good faith… In which case even though Sam went off to call in secret, they could have made more of a production of him going to call in secret or snaking the card from wherever Cas or Dean had it, because Sam was not the last known owner of it, as the recap reminds us, and through a total lack of development of the scenes in the Bunker, there was no sense that Sam shouldn’t have been doing that except that maybe he went to get private time to call… not enough >.> Since it’s the only action he took in the first half of the episode that was actually an interesting character moment, Sam needed some more attention to deciding to do that. Again, ESPECIALLY because the BMoL had him tortured, and so like with all the ignoring how Lucifer tortured him to work with him at the end of 11, Sam’s blanket forgiveness for the greater good behaviour is getting downright scary but also critically under-analysed by the show…

-

also petition for the show to never use “bing bang boom bob’s your uncle” ever again

-

Cas being all growly at Mr Ketch. :)

“truth can be situational” - aw, the lessons he’s learned in lying. (“I’m a very good liar. I once decieved you and your brother for a year” - and yet he cracks so easily when he doesn’t want to lie)

Since they don’t know he killed Magda and is definitely a villain character, him being a dick to Cas and Cas scowling at him is definitely the kind of warning sign they need to pay attetion to.

-

I’m going to leave the lads to their cheeky bants and go talk a walk while there’s still some sun…

I liked Dean about to get all worked up about the grenade launcher at Sam and Sam shushing him like “Not the time”

-

since we have 10 minutes left, Mr Ketch gives them the Colt - I mean, the holy hand grenade - I mean… whatever the frig that egg is

I can’t believe I guessed right that Buckleming Abandon All Hope would literally be 10 minutes at the end

there’s probably something symbolic about using an egg when it’s an episode about a pregnancy

-

Also how does she know she’s pregnant if Lucifer only just knocked her up

-

Cas saying Crowley “left” the job as the King of Hell… heh, he still wants that title but Cas is so fed up with him. :P

-

oh, the weird bible thing from the start is used again here by Cas…

-

ooh she leaves a burning handprint on the bible… I… don’t know what to make of that in the ongoing handprint imagery, but, well, it happened.

-

Oh, she knows because Lucifer told her because Lucifer knows he did it >.>

-

Did they literally just phone Lucifer up like, hey, got your girl

-

Okay, so that’s the motel from, definitely, 3x02 (aka Dean meets Lisa and wonders if he knocked her up and made Ben) and 8x16 (aka Prometheus, and meeting his girlfriend who he knocked up and made a son who he passed on his curse to) and now Lucifer’s coming here to save his girl he just knocked up…

sometimes the set re-use on this show really hurts my head

-

(I called this one way back when the set pictures were released although I didn’t know what it was FOR)

-

(the Hammer of the Gods set reuse last episode was a bit more obvious from the moment we saw it :P)

-

Ahahahahahahhahhaaa Cas is in the closet OKAY then

-

“I’m not the droids you’re looking for”

-

CAS SAVE HER

Where are you????

-

Oh, Sam is doing the thing, and Cas is just… lurking. Usefully. I guess he didn’t wanna be grappling Lucifer when Sam did the spell :P

-

Yay Sam “Go to Hell!”

-

What if Cas is immune tp being in this same room as the spell because he doesn’t even angel smoke any more  
he hasn’t done it since literally 4x20

-

Oh, good, the president is okay

-

Crowley yoinks Rowena away from this scene

-

Sam finally breathes for the first time since like, 11x14

-

I can’t believe Sam and Dean are going to spend Christmas in prison for manhandling the president

-

Crowley better act like their lawyer and get them the hell out of there

 

You know, because most people have lawyers who can teleport through locked doors

-

*watches to the end with my mouth open and eye twitching slightly*

Well, we’re cancelling any Christmas fluff fics then :P


	9. 12x09

Oh no we haven’t even talked expectations…

Well, it’s Dabb, and despite spending hiatus working through the apocalpyse arc and season 6 and therefore picking up mooost of the weirder episodes with his name on (oh dear, still got Becky to come) his later episodes are all like, islands among nonsense at times and I still trust him despite the ridiculousness of the plot twists this season. Normally he seems to act like clean up crew to Buckleming but he IS steering the boat now so he’s cleaning up something HE was in charge of… :P Also a brave decision to sneak in an episode in the middle of the season - though Carver had other engagements while Dabb, like Gamble and Kripke, appears to have nothing else going on in his life except Supernatural so can spare the time to write an episode I guess :P

(Seriously, look him up on IMDB)

Anyway. I’m expecting a good, inoffensive episode by someone who loves the show, and will maybe let us in a bit on where he thinks he’s going. Pre-episode interviews stressed clearing up Lucifer to get back to the BMoL stuff, which I think is wise. These are all very human power structures as the enemy now, whether it’s the govt. stuff, or the secret magical society on their asses, and honorary Winchester, Cas, is probably in the most danger from them. I keep having flashbacks to that bit in Splash where they have the poor mermaid in a tank, which I am assuming is what the BMoL would do if they got their hands on an angel.

Let Cas return to the sea :<

-

I am also very tired and have migraine blech bisecting my vision so there’s a good start

-

The recap basically tells us nothing exciting with the editing. Season 12 so far happened. I can’t identify the song. Moving on :P

-

I like the menu next to Mary says “FREE* Coffee refills!” - Freedom is in trouble here :P

-

I hope this is the “I’m scared and alone - can you come get me mom?” phonecall from Cas

-

Well it’s Cas…

-

I really don’t understand this vs the promo because Cas appears not to have been waiting for like, six weeks or whatever. He’s still standing at the motel where everything went pear shaped. He sounds suitably distressed for “it’s been fifteen minutes and I’m sort of concerned” - I love that Cas stammering over it is immediately showing he’s really out of his depth. He’s been faking it all season but he’s as messed up as ever and he doesn’t have answers here. This is such a messed up situation and he doesn’t know what to do, and he immediately starts to fall apart a bit.

This IS a much better opening than I was expecting because I was bracing myself for the 6 weeks passing bullshit forgetting Cas and Mary exist, and leaping right in with Sam and Dean until like, 15 minutes into the episode. So I have to award a few points right away for that, and I’m starting to think I have been emotionally injured by Carver era despite thinking I was doing very well to stay afloat above the deep seas of Cas bitterness :P Got to remember that Dabb loves Cas. I’ll get a tattoo or something.

If this means a horrible time passing montage with Cas & Mary in a lil bit I’m not sure I can hack it :P

Bonus thought - this puts Cas and Mary first, who of course have been on the same emotional arc all season and is now throwing them at the same problem, they can deal with together, so from the moment Cas catches Mary up to all the plot nonsense she’s missed, they’re running absolutely parallel, so the compare and contrast will be delicious. They’ve only had a couple of meaningful conversations so working on their dynamic will be really interesting. Opening the episode like this prioritises them by stopping them from being lost in what will assumedly take up more of the story’s emotional energy in the Sam n Dean stuff, as well as giving us a pre-emptive reminder that they’re the family out there who will be looking for Sam and Dean - and the family that Sam and Dean will be missing in turn.

-

“Sam and Dean Winchester attempted to kill the President of the United States.”  
“… oh. … Do we know why?”

Pfft.

Hey if you can’t laugh about it you’re not enjoying making the show any more.

I know this guy from the promo last night is the one who sticks Sam n Dean in isolation, but the scariness is yet to be sold on us. Immediate impression from that little exchange, is he’s a guy with folders on his desk catching himself up (so not an enemy like Victor was back in season 2/3, or Toni was with her moodboard about them, or any other villains who already knew and were out to get them) and therefore he’s got a certain “just doing my job” guy who sits at a desk vibe, which is exactly how they introduced Zach to us in 4x17 by showing him in the office heirarchy before the Heaven one… As it is in Heaven… I’m guessing these are the muggle versions of the angels, especially since they’re all wearing suits and stuff, and are the behind the scenes, very powerful desk-sitters like Zach or Naomi would have been to Michael, so this guy and the secret service dude are to the President. Zach told us his greatest reason they should be scared of him is because he was petty, not because he was powerful, and when it comes to due process, pissing off the people in charge and inspiring them to be mean to you as petty retaliation is a great way to ruin your own week :P

(Sam and Dean have the advantage they are being held unjustly and genuinely did not try to kill the President, but this also works against them because in this society the very fact of being held by Muggles over a supernatural misunderstanding is a problem. They can’t explain WHY they were there and generally all round they have an impossible situation because of their job vs what the rest of the world thinks. Of course secret service dude has been told by Lucifer they’re religious whackjobs who thought Prezifer was, hahaha, possessed by Lucifer. Throw in years of issues with law enforcement, not being believed, and how they were raised to behave towards the law and in self-preservation or for protecting the family/their secrets, Sam and Dean have it hammered into them not to talk. Only something like ghost attacks or demons possessing their pursuer have cleared up this problem before - if they can’t demonstrate that the supernatural is a real problem and they deal with it, they have NO story whatsoever. I might be wrong and Dabb has something great to pull out of his sleeve, for them to explain away what they’re doing, but I’m guessing their silence when questioned really says it all… or not. :P)

-

“Quiet types. Okay.”

-

hehehe them saying Mary is deceased. Oh boy you’re wrong there - I hope it comes back to bite them, as it did the BMoL earlier this season. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Listing their family as Sam n Dean, Mary and John also has a weird imbalance that 3 of those are alive, but the 4th is now Cas, nominally a 3rd brother, and being also unknown to the authorities (while the BMoL had “Cassiel” on the board because they can allow for angels to exist)… I guess he flies even lower on the radar.

I would be quite amused if they had random security footage and “known associates - Jimmy Novak??? for some reason???? who is this guy??????”

-

Ahahahaha the clarification on “the same corpse?”

it matters.

-

Sam and Dean share an obligatory soulful look (well, Dean looks mournfully at Sam who is just scowling at the door) before being shoved into cells carefully separate from each other by at least 1 empty cell. Good thinking.

-

All this said, it’s really interesting to know what is and isn’t on the public record - for Muggles or not - for the Winchesters. Though we saw Toni’s moodboard back in 11x23 it still counts as being part of this story, since it was all just the seeds for what happens this season with the BMoL, and we see stuff like them not having good records on the Campbells, not knowing who Cassiel is… Having a lot of grapevine info but incomplete pictures and understanding of it. The government knows even less, despite multiple investigations, as every time law enforcement hit on the truth, they suddenly become extremely unwilling to file accurate paperwork. The detail of the grave desecrations is the most troubling, the thing that sets them aside from regular weirdoes as being serial killers with a clear Thing that makes all their activities so hard to understand and worth commenting on, and it’s always interesting to watch the Proper Authorities get all weird about that :P

-

Hard to tell at this point if Secret Security dude’s response to them being “the tip of some nasty ass iceberg” is scepticism or he is genuinely out to get them representing some threat like Lucifer or Hell in general. He does suggest immediately killing them, which sounds a lot like someone with a once in a lifetime opportunity to get rid of the Winchesters by surprisingly conventional, easy means, or he could just be really into taking an early lunch and thinking Sam and Dean aren’t worth the paperwork :P

-

Now we have context on this guy, he seems somewhat more… idk, less threatening. Especially as he wants to keep them alive he’s now technically in their corner even if he thinks they have info. He’s not incompetent and he’s not on their side, but it all adds up to make it clear he’s SO much not the worst thing they’ve ever encountered. His mistaken beliefs about what groups they may represent add to his dramatic irony-laden out of his depth-ness, but his interest in interrogating them is a best case scenario when the other is having them shot out back…

-

He threatens them with “nothing” as a way to get them to talk, which is ironic considering they literally have nothing that they can say and they’re trapped by that nothing.

bring on the Empty metaphor.

-

this also like 2x07 establishes that sort of parallel closeness between Sam and Dean by parallel experiences, this time having him give the exact same speech to the both of them. He doesn’t try to get all personal like Victor did, digging in about their father to Dean, or Linda Blair did to Sam in 2x07, telling him he’s smart and just being dragged along by his big brother and still has a chance for a life and college and all that if he talks. Same speech for them both - which is again a good sign he doesn’t really know how to deal with them, and also says he’s working off past experience of it working. I suppose this is all riding off of 2x07’s success as an episode by having Sam and Dean separated, but they react differently to these words, while the man reciting them doesn’t change. He is inflexible - Sam and Dean have their own ways to react to the scenario.

-

Not sure if Sam showing visible nerves is worse than Dean’s blankness covering over what’s going on underneath…

-

We ALSO get Sam’s reaction to the door closing with a big flinch - paralleling Mary leaving I guess - while we get the door closing ON Dean hiding him from us, covering him up… Yeah, their differences are on display here

-

Woah title card. You’re a bit late :P Forgot we hadn’t seen you.

-

Unlike Bucklemming pacing disasters, they needed Cas n Mary up first as I was saying, but Sam n Dean are the cliffhanger to break on, that the end of the Cas n Mary scene just didn’t have the ooomph for, so…

-

Oh god it’s Mick and he has a typewriter. I think I’ve dated this man.

Well, he’s the aggregate of the Irish hipster I crushed on at uni and the… Bognor Regis… hipster I crushed on later.

tl;dr what a douchebag

-

It’s probably gonna be a magic typewriter and I’m trying to remember if it was JUST Fringe or if there was something I watched more recently that ALSO had a magic type writer to send reports home and basically this is going to be borrowed from somewhere or other unless he really does just like typing his reports on a typewriter, in which case see above: do not date this douchebag

-

I like his ring though

-

Lizzy, no.

-

Oh hey it is the typewriter from Fringe/wherever I saw it more recently

-

Am fighting a suspicion that was just Metatron’s typewriter from when I recently watched 9x18

-

Which makes an interesting parallel because he then talks directly into the camera (“let me paint you a picture” / “let me tell you a story”), trying to sell a story to this rando hunter, but obviously not doing well. His story is one of failure :P The talking directly into the camera is of course something that works to make it look like the character is talking directly to the audience. Knowingly in Metatron’s case, but in this case Mick is just trying to talk to what we’re being given as an example of any of the hunters he’s talked to. We’re on their side, because the BMoL clearly suck and we’ve been set up to root for the American hunters’ way of life, which has a lot of freedom going for it, and this show is inherently anti-establishment, so if we’ve been following along this far we know to instinctively distrust a business proposition like this.

“all we’re asking is that you go where you’re told and do what you’re told. for the greater good.” See, they’re anti-freedom, and throwing in the mantra from Hot Fuzz, aka a classic of British cinema… (for anyone who hasn’t seen it, the village neighbourhood watch becomes a creepy cult, chanting “the greater good” for justifying murdering anyone who ruins the village and gets in the way of them winning the village of the year competition - like the BMoL, Sanford Neighbourhood Watch want the village under an iron grip where no one steps out of line or doesn’t act always in the best interest of the village. They have everyone under constant surveillance and there’s a lot of sneaky social commentary in there, just like the BMoL who have the country on lockdown from monsters and anything that will ruin the rustic aesthetic :P

-

And the American hunter replies about how they “ain’t looking to take any orders from anyone” - and judges Mike for his soft hands :P

(This whole cowboy hunter mentality rejecting foreign regulation does probably have some unfortunate implications in the current political climate, but this is an attitude at the core of the show that goes back to 2005, so may just be bad timing >.>)

-

Love the transition from Mick to Cas n Mary; we don’t know what Mick knows about this, but then Cas and Mary don’t know all that much either about where Dean and Sam actually are and what happened to them after they were last seen alive. But we transition in with Mick apparently about to write about Sam and Dean, and we get this scene about how Cas and Mary don’t know anything, so.

-

Oh no Cas is looking tortured. Mary opens with “You LEFT them” which is immediately horrible to hear :P Her right to be protective I guess but *clusters around Cas and hugs him*

Oh Cas no you’re so stammery. Someone help him :<

This is especially awful after watching so much of season 5 & 6 lately, and getting used to snappy, angry and totally sure of himself season 6 Cas. Like, yeah, the character benefit in the long run from softening him up is great, but aaargh this is like being dunked in ice cold water :P This is the same character who stared down Soulless Sam threatning to kill him and said, “Will you, BOY”. He’s so broken.

*pauses on Cas looking miserable after Mary tells him to stop making excuses* :<

She doesn’t knooow that he tries his best and he’s, well, NOT the great powerful Castiel that once was. She didn’t even KNOW that Cas but Dean’s vouching for him possibly over-sold Cas because DEAN hasn’t realised how fragile Cas is these days either.

I don’t wanna keep watching this argument :P

(This reminds me of 11x06 where Dean and Cas were angry with each other for letting Metatron and Amara go, respectively, only now Mary is upset with Cas for losing basically everything at once, and he has to just stand there and take it :P)

-

“If they needed help, why didn’t they call me?” and there’s the real reason Mary’s so upset. That she only finds out after the fact from Cas that ANY of this had been going on. Haven’t hit play yet after that line but not 100% sure Mary even knew about Lucifer.

-

I love how without Sam and Dean around the Bunker is dark like, okay, it’s symbolic of them being gone and all, but it’s also really funny like Mary and Cas don’t know where the light switches are and only worked out how to turn the map table on, and like, good enough, we have more important things to worry about.

-

Like Cas saying “you were out” which punts more back at Mary that her leaving to find herself is now being equally to leaving Sam and Dean to their fate.

-

I mean we all know Buckleming are to blame here, and then probably just Fate who is still pissed at them (Yeah I watched 6x17 a couple of days ago :P) and then if not any of that, bad luck and non-apportioned blame for bad decisions.

-

“How did we let this happen, Castiel?” Okay the “Mary calling Cas "Castiel” gifset got more tragic. Also this brief argument also manages to smooth this out so with this line she’s making it clear she understands that if either of them to blame, they’re both to blame.

-

we’re 10 minutes in and Dean might finally do something on screen other than sit or walk silently.

-

Hahahahahaha he has a loose screw

on the nose much

-

He gets steak here. Not bad.

-

Well, again going back to season 2, 2x19 Dean was great with the prison food, Sam not so much. Sam can’t even take the smell of it and Dean not only tastes it but gives it a “not so bad” shrug. So much meta was already written about them and food in relation to that episode I guess it doesn’t need a whole lot of repeating here about what it implies about their characters, but I really like the consistency across 10 years of the show.

-

The real question is, does Dean’s hair actually grow.

-

Love the transition from crappy prison food to Crowley’s drink.

-

Ooh an El Sol.

It ends up behind Crowley while Cas has a tequila sign behind him.

-

“Do you even care that they’re gone?” I like that Cas sounds a bit more like himself (nothing like having Crowley around to make Cas scowly and clearly feel like he’s a superior lifeform :P)

But yeah - Cas assumes Crowley might care. Cas betrays his OWN caring by saying that, like it should be obvious they care enough to do something about it.

Crowley has apparently already found out what he can about it before Cas came asking, so that MIGHT betray his caring, and he’s already drinking his favourite drink, which has Drowley connotations all around it. Is this why there’s an El Sol - he’s lying about that?

“Do you know how many all-powerful beings have tried to kill them?” “Roughly, yes.” Honestly, I feel like there’s a newsletter.

Crowley comparing the Winchesters to herpes and suggesting that someone “has” them with a double meaning is probably my favourite thing this season :P Especially when you’ve been binge watching several seasons recently, following all the minor and big time villains the Winchester work through… Yeah :P

Cas’s “wtf Crowley” face gives me life.

-

AAAH Mary is in Dean’s seat at the table red alert she’s at that table

-

Oh crap she’s doing like, a reverse Amara - lured to Dean’s room by a ringing phone, we see her walk through the Bunker corridors on the way there and she goes a-snooping… Well, to find the phone. Anyway. AAAH Dean’s room. Aaaaaaah outside eyes on it. Aaaaaaaaaaaah how in multiple occasions that’s been used to show Mary as the heart of the room (10x03, 10x22, 11x22, off the top of my head) after Dean put her pic there (hi Dabb in 8x14)… Now MARY is the one going in the room.

I’m all overcome with Mary feels and not sure I can hack seeing her in Dean’s room.

Aaaaaand she found the pic of herself and Dean

*slides out of my chair*

(Also aawwww Alicia! She and Max continue to exist outside the narrow window of their episode I AM SO HAPPY)

(Please don’t get eaten by werewolves off-screen, that would literally be the worst way for you to come back ever)

-

Mary, stop being emo and go help

-

yay!

-

Did they just show Dean shaving himself to explain his hair if he has access to clippers because

i mean i’m not complaining i just…

Dabb let me throw scrunched up bits of paper at you. I don’t know any other way to be.

leave me a meaningless little plothole to fixate over

just one?

-

“Listen, team. Lizbob Jones will be watching this episode. I have suffered too much indignity at her hands. You are now all on plothole duty. No stone is too meaningless and silly to turn”

-

Sam and Dean montaging doesn’t give me a lot to work with :P

-

*returns after watching 6x19, 6x20, 6x21 and 6x22*

As you might guess I am Not Okay and I now have to go rewatch the start of the episode and deal with Miserable Season 12 Cas when the last image burned into my retinas is Godstiel

-

This is surreal. :P I just saw Sam Smith as Eve, and Sam taking on his Hell memories and now the recap is all hi Mary, and Sam like “I’ve been tortured by the devil himself” and I know JUST how much he means it.

Jesus christ the font of the diner Mary’s in looks like the one Eve was parked in

Mary looks so much younger than she did in season 6 because of the hair

I am considering cutting my fringe (bangs for Americans) again

Also the end of season 6 takes place in Kansas - my mum and I were talking about how everything takes place in Kansas when it’s important.

I have just remembered Mary said in 12x06 she had been in Lawrence, so she is definitely going in circles now since she’s back in Lawrence, moping, which means she has pretty much reached the end of her rope on places to go

wow Dean’s face is so much longer and sharper than it was in season 6. Well, he was especially round-faced in season 6-8, but… Yeah, he looks so different.

Sam is also way more angular. I miss his hair and sideburns from season 6.

… God that scene where they’re told they’re being left alone is peak performing!Dean

I still don’t get the typewriter thing unless this is like govt. offices using Windows XP still because it’s more secure and all the systems work with it… the MoL invented this typewriter and now use it for all their correspondance because, well, the whole thing is set up to work properly. Field reports come in and you can file them as they are. I assume it’s so arcane and outdated no one can imagine you’d actually still be using something like that when email exists.

Mick saying he never hunted anything makes me kinda want him to have to do a MotW with Sam n Dean and to just scream like a girl when a ghostie comes for him.

he’s obscenely stubbled.

*resumes petting Cas’s hair* Can Winchesters just… stop… shouting at him and questioning his choices? He’s had a very tough week. His sad face hurts.

“You were out” definitely sounds more sympathetic this time around because I’ve heard a lot of tones of voices from Cas playing sorry and actually feeling like crap.

The “chow time” unseen extra is definitely my favourite character in this episode.

I know we went over Dean’s eye twitch ages ago but AAAAH

CAS NO DON’T GO ASK CROWLEY FOR HELP

I can’t believe they’re still hanging out after everything ever. I mean. We need to appreciate Cas n Crowley more.

Cas’s look. He’s like… I could have exploded him when I had the chance. Why did I let him go. Why. I smushed Raphael like it was nothing.

Oh yeah Lisa had a ring design necklace in 6x21 which is funny now Mary.

Alicia is the first character who is not surprised that Mary would answer the phone instead…

Aaaand I’m back. That was so much quicker without having to comment in detail.

I still don’t know why Dean decided to sit on the toilet with a blanket

-

Oh no now Cas and Mary are drinking and comisserating about how awful they are. Please stop :P

Cas feeling like he should have stayed with Sam and Dean is awful, but also pretty funny because he’d have been arrested and that changes the entire tone of this episode imagining them trying to have him in prison with them

-

Cas counting the hours while we’ve seen Dean counting the days… Yeah, that sucks :P

-

Are Cas and Mary going to go hunting? I love how Mary just has not had time to get used to Cas yet - she tries to reassure him like “we’re doing our best” and he’s like “no”

You two should go work a case together.

Go do it.

Stop reminiscing and go save people.

Oh shit no he already went

CAS :<

“I don’t know what I did wrong” and I have to pause it to collect myself because I have ingested waaaaaaay over the legal limit of Cas angst today. I’m taking my Cas!funko down from the shelf to hug. Brb.

This also parallels them working cases in this time; I should hit play to see what the verdict is.

Oh Cas.

I’ve just had it paused with nothing to say but I have been sitting here staring at Cas’s face.

I kind of feel like a miserable Cas girl is not the right person to analyse the horror of Cas saying he ran away, but I’ve been thinking vividly about 6x20, and how Cas says “I was me again” and then he’s not Cas for like… another season or two. And when he takes on Sam’s hell memories, and he’s all “don’t like conflict” and runs away and -

mmmmhm. nope. nah. I’m out.

-

If Cas cries I might go to bed and watch this tomorrow :P

-

AND MARY OFFERS TO GO WITH HIM AND HELP. MARY I LOVE YOU

LOOK AFTER MY CAS FOR ME

-

Cas no you can’t tell her that you’ll only get in her way :< :< :<

-

Cas feels so useless and it’s terrible

-

side note: now I’m staring at the hand of the “chow time” character and not Cas’s face… I really really really appreciate what was starting to seem like a dropped storyline of Cas’s mental health issues being brought back into the main text, because after early/mid season 11 I answered a hell of a lot of asks about this reassuring people that there was no way they’d make such a big deal of this and not do anything, and then after season 11 I was like hey now Cas is free of Lucifer his story has to be about this and then it still didn’t really happen yet and then Cas left and I was like great this is how we get to this part of his character arc, and we’re HERE and I am delighted that the show telegraphing this plot worked out and I was right but

*takes a slice of cold processed meat from Dean’s lunch tray and eats it while staring directly at Dabb*

-

oh yeah btw Sam is dead or something

-

Oh, Dean is too.

-

I can’t believe Sam and Dean invented the sport of synchronised dying

-

was this because the Cas stuff was getting too grim?

-

I like how the show lays them out top and tail because they don’t wanna make it remotely suggestive

Sam n Dean are at a sleepover

-

Oh yeah no the secret service guy totally doesn’t have a personal bone to pick with Dean.

-

“well that’s totally mentally normal” I’m starting to really like this guy

-

Cas hasn’t changed his phone background since season 9 despite changing phones…

if he’s listening to voicemails from Dean I’m going to scream

Oh thank god it’s Mary

-

I mean. Fuck.

Caaas

-

I had a point somewhere or other about Cas and Mary’s journies being paralleled over this time and I was meaning to make a comment about them hunting over this time because it seemed like the simplest side to side comparison of how they’re dealing… Then of course Cas completely went to pieces, ran away… Mary is clearly in a terrible place too but she has coping methods and is able to hunt and repress and keep herself going, very Dean-like. Cas is… well, going into this fucked up in a way even Mary can’t reach for all the adjusting she has still to do; Cas has at least, say, five to six seasons worth of trauma and it’s been worse than usual lately because it’s been catching up to him and he’s not been able to deal in time before the next thing. End of season 10/start of 11 really piled it on and started the PTSD thing openly, and here we are - something terrible happens and Cas completely shatters. >.>

At this point I feel so terrible for Cas I’ve pretty much transcended any Destiel points scoring I would have made about his sadness being more overt than Mary’s, because I signed up for the lite version of this episode :P

-

Hey Dean now you’re awake and not dead, go save your angel from himself.

He’s literally in such a better place, and he has Sam with him and they’re cool - their only problem is getting the fuck out of here, plus minor, throw-it-on-the-trauma-pile stuff to deal with their time in isolation. And they’ve had a plan for a little while and are in the middle of enacting it and appear to have been able to communicate, so :P Ball’s in Dean’s court now. We see Mary keeping her chin up, Sam and Dean rescuing their own damn selves (though - halfway point of the episode), and… Cas crumbling.

-

sue me now I’m with Dean again I’m just like, you know what, this is the perfect episode to end with a Destiel snog.

-

I can’t remember what shirt Dean was wearing when they were caught but I assume they’re not getting it back. I wonder if it would be one we’ll miss.

-

Yes I am aware that the next thing appears to be the phonecall we were teased SO long ago and no I do not want to watch it :P

-

I think Dean wearing a plain grey shirt is always a bad sign because he has an endless supply of them and keeps like, leaving them on doomed submarines and stuff

-

It has been raining for like the entire episode

-

Oh good Cas isn’t answering. Love the parallel AGAIN with Cas and Mary this time with the dark library with one lamp on - Mary sat here at the start of 12x03 while soul-searching and reading John’s journal. Now Cas’s phone with Dean calling is in the same place. (And also Mary is summoned across the Bunker to Alicia and more work - Cas when he assumedly eventually answers because I have been spoiled that there IS a phone call… comes to answer Dean.)

Honestly though, Dean keeps calling Cas instead of trying another number… Has he just not memorised any others?

Is Cas in Dean’s room sniffing his pillow?

hit play again, Lizzy

-

Cas’s voice cracked and I’m going to go lie on the ground outside the house

-

Cas’s fucked up fake heaven in 9x22 was in Colarado… He’s gonna find Dean there now

-

Mary is still killing shit to make herself feel better

-

Someone telling Cas to “slow down” - WOW. When does Cas EVER speak fast?

-

Poor morgue guy in his morgue drawer.

-

“hey”

-

This is why I love Dabb

-

“You got here quickly” “Yup”

“Seatbelt on. I drive fast”

LET MARY DRIVE THE FUCKING IMPALA

-

In between that, she vetoes the King of Hell as back up because they can do better than that and this is why she is good and important and I love her

-

Also she’s speeding my OTP towards each other at top speed

-

Cas knows all about seatbelts.

-

I love how the guy from the facility is wheezing and out of breath. He’s a weirdly human character for minimal screentime. A+ writing and acting.

-

Oh hey Cas and Mary seem to be near/in the woods already

And Mick and Mr Ketch looking smug and yeah I agree with comments on the promo pics - sort of married. Full on smug about being asked to help.

Mick’s problem with telling the other hunters he’s there with help and resources is that they don’t get into such epically fucked up situations as the winchesters and need to call for ridiculous back up. You’re letting the whole side down.

Mary sassing Cas about who he phones for help gives me life, but now is not the time, Mary.

-

She’s so like Dean and I love her

-

Except she apparently got hold of a better version of her car from the past :P

-

Mary, do not fall for Mick’s rugged good looks, I’m warning you, he’s a douchebag and probably drinks like a whole bottle of wine every night because he thinks alcoholism is cool

-

But their reaction to the whole Lucifer thing was hilarious. The MoL geniunely don’t know what they’re dealing with when it comes to the Winchesters and the level they work on. Cas just like, yes to knowing lucifer and yes to winning against him now can we get to business? :P

-

“Do you have any idea the sort of trouble we’re walking into?”

NOW Cas says “no” after all that Lucifer hilarity.

“Oh i do like a surprise” Mr Ketch trust me you are not ready :P

-

update: also want him to scream and cry before this is over

-

When Dean tells the guy there’s been a “failure to communicate” I am pretty sure that is the exact moment his screw goes loose - after that, saying they’re trapped in the woods with him… Yeah, we’re in Purgatory now.

-

I was going to make a comment about him being a woodsman anyway before that, but yeah now

-

OH LOOK ABANDONED CABIN

-

Something terrible clearly happened here.

-

I love that one bit of Dean’s hair at the front that always goes down

-

Oh NOW Sam talks and tells them everything :P

-

I’ve just noticed there’s finally not much of this episode left now that I’ve managed to watch a good long action- sequence. Sam and Dean still haven’t talked about what they did to get out of here and the whole thing screams Billie (Red Meat from last season, especially, but both of them doing their synchronised dying instead of trading back and forth) so I feel worried they’ve incurred a group debt here, whatever they’ve done. Likewise Cas and Mary are working with the BMoL for better or worse, sooo… I guess mild consequences ensue?

I say mild, I just watched 6x20 in the last couple of hours, consequences don’t really… mean very much any more after that :P

-

“We’re the guys that saved the world” Oh that is definitel being used in the Road So Far Montage at the end of the season. There is almost no reason to have that line aside from gratuitous re-use

-

While I was typing that Dean stumbled out of the treeline in front of Cas and I’m not ready :P

-

Dean too stunned to hug, Sam goes for it.

Dean probably still double checking he’s not hallucinating until Sam interacts and proves he sees Cas too

-

Mom’s there and Dean’s already messed up once this season, so thumping Cas’s back and “hey buddy” is is :P

-

I assume this is also to make Cas feel bad especially because we get a shot of Cas looking bad.

-

I just watched the hug 3 more times (Sam’s hug. Where Dean’s still processing in the background)

-

“Space” *dabb puts a coin in the jar*

-

Oh dear, the ethics of slaughtering everyone who mildly inconveniences you.

Mr Ketch must be a dick on the Tube.

-

“This man was holding up the barrier because his Oyster card was still in his pocket”

“I assume you killed him”

“Naturally”

“innit”

*Mick and Ketch clink their glasses of red wine together while reclining in corduroy pyjamas in their flat*

-

The fact there are a full 5 minutes left is extremely worrying. A lot can happen in five minutes on this show.

-

The most alarming thing I realise is with 5 minutes to spare, Dabb gave absolutely no car continuity issues which were SO bananas they broke immersion

-

Oh my god Dean and Cas are sitting together in the back

They’re holding hands I guess

-

Oh dear this is why electric cars are a bad idea

-

Is Billie going to come reap them?

-

Hey Billie.

I saw you coming from a mile but

-

I can’t work out what they dealt with because I am assuming they’re NOT TRADING MARY for their freedom? They would NOT do that.

-

That is the dumbest deal a Winchester has cut to date.

-

Also the fact Cas didn’t cut in “I’m a Winchester” because he secretly married Dean is like… wow Cas. You’re such a fake friend.

-

also they now appear to be ACCIDENTALLY trading Mary for their freedom because she’s all decisive and Sam n Dean are too slow and emo to say stuff in good time.

-

*insert a minute of unbroken screaming*

-

Okay, so I will forgive Cas for not being a Winchester for the fact he stopped this

I am very conflicted about the backstabbing I’ve witnessed Cas do today.

-

“Cas what have you done” “What had to be done” Oh hello again.

This episode is like Red Meat but turned upside down and shaken for thigs to scavenge into a plot episode.

-

The worst part about this is that Cas can’t marry Dean and take his last name now or he’d be a Winchester and therefore liable to the latest Winchester Family Curse they all brought on themselves.

It’s like the COLLECT fucking family curses

-

It’s been five minutes and I already miss Billie intensely

-

Oh no and this is Cas’s speech about the world needing them

He’s the family guardian angel, as he said… back in… 6x20.

OH SHIT HE’S CRYING.

Dean is crying too.

They’re all crying.

Someone get this family some fucking therapy.

-

Cas being bitchy about saving them already, because wow he’s in a bad place and Dean needs to chase after him and kiss him now k thnks

-

he’s not actually walked away yet but I paused it at the place that in season 6 Cas would have flapped away so I assume when we hit play he’s going to stand there awkwardly and then say, “I need a ride”

-

“Sorry about the family curse”

-

Oh shit Mick’s been writing the whole time - this is going to need some serious meta beyond what I churned out earlier, comparing him to the other writer characters, because you can’t use typing out the story as a framing device on this show and NOT have it come back to Metatron or others who’ve tried to control the narrative. Now the BMoL want to control the narrative, and, well, good luck to them, the other poor bastards who tried needed more than that :P

-

Aw noooo not the morgue guy. I liked him. :< Or “Chow time” guy. He deserved better.

-

Fucking Mr Ketch. What a dick. First Magda then these hilarious side characters.

-

None of whom I ever learned the name for but oh well :P

-

Mick is as bad a typist as Metatron

-

He’s still trying his “let me paint a picture” thing again. Who’s he talking to now? Better not

\- oh yeah, it’s Mary.

of course it is. Now Dean and Sam are isolated from Cas and Mary - their paralleled experience lead to the same place in THAT respect but this time, Mary seems to have that belonging with Sam and Dean (nothing like entering into a death pact together to forge bonds) but to protect that she’s willing to listen and do anything to stop things like death pacts ever happening again. Which means accepting Mick’s offer and getting in with the BMoL without knowing for sure that they’re AS horrible as they are. The whole mother’s love thing - new territory for the show to have it as an actual dangerous wild card force that has just as many dangers as the other sorts of loves they explore, instead of being an abstract concept…

Cas is the more pragmatic one who would kill for the family but was NOT allowed to demonstrate he’d kill HIMSELF for them. His issues were all over the place this episode and now are obviously a thing in his story again after a little holiday where they were shevled… But it’s taken him away from them. He loves them so strongly but clearly felt his actions were being judged, or that by inviting cosmic repercussions (the old “did what I had to do”) instead of allowing Winchesters to die, he’s perpetuating the cycle this time by not wanting ANY of them to die.

(Cas would have the Gordion knot solution to this >.>) (I miss Billie)

But yeah, preserving the family unit and speaking reverently of the Winchesters as a unit further serves to isolate him from them and have him looking in on them. His pissy response to their shock he did it also underlines his sense of not being appreciated, which takes him further away again… He’s the unconditional love looking in on them… And since I just watched 6x20 I’ll point at “watched him rake leaves” as the extreme example of where this can go when it comes to Cas saving the Winchesters on his terms…

Draaaaaaaaaaaama.

I’m sending Dabb a fruit basket.


	10. 12x10

tl;dr Yockey owes me dinner

There’s a large part of me (the part that’s getting larger) that just wants to eat pasta in a mug in peace and watch this episode before midnight :P But I always regret not starting to write meta on an episode as I watch if I don’t do it, so here I am, cup of pasta and all.

Expectations - well, the spoilers all suggest some crazy angel hijinks in period costume. I’ll be fine if we make it through this episode without Cas turning out to have had a baby with Lily in the past or something.

If the spec is true and he’s in a female vessel I am however always going to have an exemption that Cas can be lesbians with her in the past, and may even WRITE Cas being gay with her in the past if I have to. >.>

The sanctity of the OTP has a few override buttons :P

Aside from that, well, it’s Yockey, and I loved his first episode and he seems like he should be mostly unproblematic, after 12x06, but of course we barely have a handle on him and he’s never written a full plot episode or Cas, and it seems like he’ll not only be writing Cas but presumably a past version of Cas in a different vessel so… This is going to be a bit of a wild ride no matter how chill 12x06 made me feel about Yockey as a writer :P

-

The trouble with pasta in a mug is that it’s still really hot towards the bottom of the mug so you have to keep stopping eating it, and I think that is a perfect metaphor for how I approach watching new SPN episodes >.>

-

Right back to 4x02 as a starter of the recap :’)

-

I may be getting older but I swear recaps didn’t habitually re-tell entire chunks of the story like this re: the entire everything that happened with the nephilim plot so far.

Side note: I really don’t want to think this much about the nephilim plot and would rather it just kind of went away and didn’t come back until like, season 30 or something when the kid’s a bit older and ready for the drama.

Honestly the show has a sort of built in expctation of longevity at this point, why not, uh, plant some seeds.

Anyway maybe just because Buckleming are the only ones with direct contact with it so far, but I really don’t trust the show to be equipped to deal with this, ethically, or maybe even in good storytelling way. Which just leaves me with a ton of dread that problematic shit is coming >.>

-

Also recapping an entire chunk of the story for Billie getting killed :< Thinking of problematic stuff and lazy editing.

I supopse it’s a terrible balance between the netflix bingers (who’ll skip it anyway) and the casual viewers who may not remember everything or are not reliable enough viewers to have caught every episode so they need a weighty reminder. It may just be that whoever’s editing the recaps has changed because they used to be much more efficient at conveying everything and now they’re just sort of laying everything out. The mini road so far last episode was really bland. I think the art form’s disappeared :P

-

If anyone’s wondering, the arcade game angel is now my favourite character forever. It reminds me of in Steven Universe when Garnet got addicted to an arcade game, and couldn’t be budged. Weirdly specific but excellent trope: immortal black ladies who have terrible impulse control around arcades.

I’m going to be so sad when Lily kills her.

-

[crazy awesome fight scene interlude]

[kind of sad we already know she’s called Lily because even though Lily Sunder is an incredible name, I wanted to call her Eyepatch Lady and I don’t have to]

-

Aw Benjamin :< God dammit why did she have to die first and SO soon after Billie… I mean I knew they were killing off the angels and have flashbacks to flesh them out so I assumed some would bite the dust immediately, and basically all of them but Cas are probably gonna die in the long run because haha recurring friends for Cas… But ugh, it seems kind of cruel to end the recap killing one badass WoC, and then start the episode and introduce and kill another >.> I mean I guess not intentionally cruel but definitely making a depressing trend REALLY obvious.

I don’t think anyone will care about the representation when no matter what awesome roles the characters have, they keep on dying >.>

-

I’m going to sulk off and get some tea, because I saw that coming from a mile off and it’s still annoying me :P

-

I also did the dishes and gained some dark humour perspective on it because of the little glimpses of the angels standing around doing seemingly nothing while Benjamin warned them - at least Benjamin doesn’t have to have the conversation, “so what have you done since we last saw you?” “I have been playing video games since they were invented, non stop.” “Oh, cool. Cool. I rebelled against heaven and stopped the apocalypse and was god and - ”

-

“Cas has been pretty busy, huh?” - confirmed, all the other angels are lazy butts and Cas has been hard at work.

I assume his fixation on finding Lucifer’s offspring and dragging out all the noticeboards to set it up is a continuation of what’s up with him and hunting. He was feeling more than useless with just some vampires, and so now he is trying 1000% of his hardest to do this right, especially as it’s the loose end he’s got left in the way of any attempt at happiness… He basically ALWAYS has one of these… times like this I miss Steve!cas and his simple happiness (uh on top of a yawning void of depression) at doing a few human things right, like Nora’s praise that he did basically everything to open the store without her because when he has a few simple things to accomplish, he can get it all done, and everything is ordered and in the right place, and… God I feel bad for Cas being at loose ends and feeling useless.

Dean immediately is a dick about Cas NOT finding Kelly yet, so I assume he’s in a good mood since last episode…

-

I do like that Cas is clearly at least allowed to hang out at the Bunker and use their resources even if Sam and Dean aren’t helping him or part of this project, and just sort of walked in on it. I guess this is a “good morning” meeting, only they walked into Cas staying up all night on this. There’s no weirdness about the fact Cas is here or has been doing it, he’s just an accepted part of their living space, albiet one doing weird art projects that mean they can’t use the war room for their own crap :P

They’re also really enjoying sprawling on their furniture now they’re free

-

Transitioning to the ongoing disappointment in Mom not making chicken soup for them - Dean continues finding it hardest to accept Mary has apparently adjusted, but to a life without them, instead of adjusting to a life living in the Bunker with them. It’s also bitterly amusing me that now Cas is finally kind of just around them by default, they have another character who is explained away in the opening of the episode…

-

Oh god Dean and Cas are “walking past each other in the kitchen” while not making eye contact. WHY is Cas in the kitchen. HE DOESN’T EAT. Is he strategically walking in past Dean? Bothering Sam to know if he wants coffee so he has an excuse to go get it while Dean is making a sandwich? How long has this been going on?? I want this entire soap opera episode pls.

-

Oh no DEAN IS PISSED BECAUSE HE IS WORRIED ABOUT CAS. He says it’s just about the consequences in a vague way, but CAS is the one who clearly incurred them because it’s not like this deal had any strings attached to random stuff in the universe a la releasing Amara, it was a blood pact between Winchesters, on a family level, therefore Dean is most worried about Cas.

Halp.

I don’t like this new trend of Sam and Dean actually communicating and talking about their shit. This is awful. Can we go back to them not talking about anything?

-

Cas walks in on Sam defending him. My heart.

Although tbh he can hear through walls so unless the Bunker maaagically dampens that, he’s come stomping back because he can’t take listening to them going in circles about why Dean is ignoring Cas, because ouch, hearing how Dean is concerned about Cas’s actions… I bet HE’S taking it as Dean thinking that he made a mistake >.>

-

*snipey snipey Destiel arguing* (Yeah, Dean just pretty much accuses Cas of that :P)

-

I love the old “all our friends are dead” type moment that they all have when someone comes up with “personal” business elsewhere. Like when Dean ran off to help Benny or Sam wandered off to deal with Amy Pond. Personal??? we don’t get personal lives! aaand Cas is truly a Winchester now.

-

Oh third wheel Sam. Cas wants Dean to come but snarks at him like he’s not gonna, Sam looks at Dean, Dean looks at Sam  _and_  Cas and rolls his eyes and accuses Cas of doing stupid things, but comes anyway because he will still look after Cas even if they’re not talking…

-

Aaand the promo scene which left me amazed Sam did not open the car door, jump out onto the road, and take his chances there.

-

[patented angry Cas squinting]

-

I think that was the stage direction - Yockey might be new at this but he knows what he’s doing.

-

Oh NO the bit we saw before the episode wasn’t even the half of it. Dean and Cas are having an Actual Married Argument, deliberately projecting their fight onto talking about Benjamin. I am waiting for Sam to roll down his window and climb out to spend the rest of the drive on the roof.

-

The fact Cas says “Benjamin wouldn’t call for help lightly” as well as about putting himself in harm’s way - Dean probably latches onto that last part because it suits their argument more - also firmly confirming very clearly and loudly that Dean is worried about what will happen to Cas because he’s upset that Cas put himself in harm’s way, so this argument is now definitely, textually, 100% on Dean’s side about how CONCERNED he is for Cas (and probably now a heaping of that Cas wouldn’t deserve it and that Dean wasn’t worth it because self-esteem issues… (The way this is going they’ll probably say THAT in text too in like 3 lines) But yeah, also raising the issue that Cas doesn’t ask for help. Watched him rake leaves, anyone?

-

Dean is going to CRASH THE CAR. Sam’s breaking point is Dean literally rotating 180 degrees in his seat to talk back at Cas. :P

*sound of a car horn and something narrowly missing them* 

GUYS.

-

Cas values sarcasm as a trait he really likes (nice, perfect need for someone who is going to resentfully be married to Dean forever), but would also like to be appreciated more :<

-

Aaand the info about Benjamin and his vessel has officially murdered me, especially as he’s already dead. :< Angel/human friendships! *flails emotionally* Also no angel has ever been shown so close to their vessel. Hannah came to appreciate Caroline and gave her back, but without bonding with her (rather, traumatising her, I guess); Cas being so happy Jimmy was devout now has retconned emotional impact about Cas knowing how his friend appreciated his vessel and Cas was excited to have that same bond. But Jimmy died early on, Cas didn’t have the luxury to be kind and friendly to him or to start doing that later; although he returned in 4x20 saying of course he’d keep his word to Jimmy and look after him (in that very angel way that Cas had back in season 4), it took him until Hannah and Caroline to remember this bond with a vessel and go attempt to make it right with Claire and Amelia.

*flops over and slowly slides off my chair*

-

*resumes watching from the floor because of Cas staring at Benjamin’s wings* You know how we spend way too much time as fandom imagining crap about Dean having Cas’s wings burned on him or his car or whatever? This is like that but with a character I’ve known for like 8 minutes of the show and I have a tear in my eye.

Poor Cas :<

-

*continues a non-stop “poor Cas” litany through this scene*

-

Oh my god even though all the angel blades look the same, Cas can TELL which angel they belong to THIS IS THE WORST NEW INFORMATION I’VE EVER HEARD.

-

Well, aside from the longing retcon. Hey, it must be 2 years old around now - that was 10x10

-

Having Cas being upset about losing a close friend that he fought together with right after saving Dean, a dear friend he has fought together with, and getting super judged for it, is way on the nose. Ow.

-

It’s pretty cool that Lily has learned to talk on angel radio.

-

Oh gosh, Lily has a dead child I WONDER WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT

-

I love as well that Lily is dressing like angels used to, in a black and white suit, can talk on angel radio, has an angel blade… She’s like the ultimate hunter becoming the thing she hunts in a sort of parallel to grizzled old hunters wearing a big ol bear skin or something :P

-

place behind them when they get out the car called “The Wright Spot”… guess which director is directing this episode. Go on. :P

-

“If I plan to do anything else stupid, I’ll let you know” - I honestly did not think it was possible to love Cas more than I already did but he keeps on proving me wrong.

-

Cas is catching up on what feels like a 3 year backlog of angry squinting. He’s definitely gone over the edge since last episode, as a result of last episode, but at the moment I think as long as Dean and Cas make up, in a good way where he’s getting to vent some things about not feeling appreciated and so on, this will be okay.

-

Hang on this is the diner scene - aren’t Sam and Dean going to crush into this both with Cas? I need to see how this happens…

-

Anyway AAAAAH Cas talking to angels! Angels who aren’t trying to kill him immediately!

They are judging him for being careless and having to take a different vessel. Lol. “I liked the old you better” *Cas inspects himself*

Mirabelle then gets at Cas for the angel fall which obviously I was expecting since I already joked about this exact scene at the beginning of the episode :P I like that they went right ahead and addressed it. It’s quite an elephant in the room, and of course the fact Cas’s old battalion hadn’t crossed paths with him at any point in the angel drama previously… Well, they HAD to have not picked Raphael or they wouldn’t have made it past season 7. They may or may not have picked Metatron but they can’t have been in Cas’s army because he’d have actually chatted to them. There were still angels after season 10 who hadn’t really got involved in all that at all, so I assume they laid low, perhaps knowing Cas better than most, or thinking they do >.>

-

Oh yeah just go ahead and remind him of how terrible things went with Uriel and Balthazar while you’re at it :P

-

The “i just stared at a wall in a church for 100 years” angel is very boring. Mirabelle seemed to be pooossibly meant to be standing in Heaven’s prison when the call went out? There were bars in front of her or something like that, so I assumed she was doing some job there. No idea what beardy angel was doing.

-

Also pls stop reminding Cas of literally everything he’s ever done because in every previous encounter with angels, bringing stuff up like that is a fast way to manipulate or upset Cas and he’s in a wee bit of a precarious place right now…

-

“spanner in the works” has someone actually called Cas that in canon or is that maybe like, something Edlund said in an interview or something?

-

“I’m not a hero, but sometimes doing the right thing requires sacrifices” You know what, not that I wasn’t already thinking it, but Yockey can keep Cas :P

-

In this case, that line is tapping into his fight with Dean as well. He knows he didn’t do anything particularly noble and definitely not honourable in a literal sense as he broke a blood vow, but it was what Cas deemed the “right” thing and he’s in a sort of waiting zone to see if he broke the world again or what will be coming for him next… The sacrifices he’s willing to take to make sure Dean etc are safe, because to Cas Dean is his moral compass and what is “right” is Dean and has been since season 4, even if Cas often goes against it or struggles with it or doesn’t live up to Dean’s standards or Dean has no idea Cas is trying to do right by Dean’s way or -

(My mum’s on holiday so I’m stuck at the start of season 7 wallowing on the end of season 6 fight right now :P)

-

“But it always seems like it’s other angels sacrificing for your good deeds” Yeah, buddy, we’ve watched Cas every freakin’ step of the way and he has SUFFERED for this okay, so back off. CAS KNOWS ALREADY AND IF HE SLEPT HE WOULDN’T BECAUSE HE’D BE LYING AWAKE THINKING ABOUT THIS

-

“Are you here to insult me or talk about Benjamin?”  
“Can we do both?”

ily Yockey

-

“We didn’t think you’d care”

fuck off Yockey :P

(I love that this contrasts with at the start Dean complaining about Cas caring as part of his rant to Sam about it all - drawing a line between what Cas cares about here and there… Obviously Cas DOES care a lot about these angels because ARGH his reaction to Benjamin HURT SO MUCH. But he’s been understandably distracted for the last few years, and with these guys off having their own problems, say this started RIGHT after the angel fall, CAS WAS HUMAN and would potentially have missed anything on angel radio meant for him to warn him about this because he was so bad at tuning into it. If he never answered the call the first time one of their number was murdered, well, of course they’d think he doesn’t care)

-

Also I love that this episode clearly shows that Yockey has a very full awareness of the show’s story so far.

-

Ahahaha Sam no. (Please keep Sam-ing like this. You are the Sam I love so very much :P)

He has been observing Dean’s behaviour all his life and he knows when Dean’s patience snaps when it comes to worrying about Cas.

-

Describe them in one picture

-

Why does Sam cram in on the end though.

He doesn’t wanna be left out either, though the bench is only big enough for Dean n Cas

If you want to talk definitions of third wheels, Sam is definitely it this episode, but he’s got enough of a sense of humour that knowing he’s along for the ride trapped in a lovers’ spat, he can at least have some fun with it, since he’s basically got to be the buffer between them. Or else towed in their wake.

(I also like how this shows Sam knows there’s no point arguing with Dean about this, so going along with it mocking him for his behaviour is about the one sort of resistance he has left to him :P)

-

“My friends who don’t listen very well” *Dean smirks at Cas* Okay, but I’m taking a screencap of that to use as like, a phone background or something.

-

This has mostly turned into me not listening to the conversation and screenshotting their faces so I need to go back and try again

-

Mirabelle better not get killed just because Sam and Dean showed up.

-

Noooooooo

-

I can see these coming from so far off but

-

“Who wants some pie”

-

Dean trying to play happy families with this weird group of people.

Well, one weird rando angel, since Mirabelle is now dead, which means that I was right but this is an even more alarming rate of side character death than I was expecting

-

Still don’t think I’ve caught beard!angel’s name

-

He accuses Cas of “how far he’s fallen” *shot of him being lovingly elbowed in the kidney by Dean* I wonder what the implication is here :P

The description of him as a warrior is interesting but we already knew that. I like “angel’s angel” though because it mirror’s “man’s man” I suppose as a phrase, which is the sort of stereotype of a manly dude who does all the manly dude stuff, well, like Dean presents the front. I think, like, the sort of dude who goes fishing with his mates every weekend rather than stay home with the wife :P

idk if angels go fishing aside from Daniel but that’s the second time I’ve thought of him in a few minutes of TV time so

-

*Dean and beard!angel really stare down each other* Not jealous at all, are we Dean? (“want some coffee with that sugar” I am so amused) Beard!angel accuses Cas of being homeless, which is really mean because he lives at the Bunker now, but, uh, essential to the arc of Cas REALISING that he lives at the Bunker and is in fact his home and GOOD ENOUGH and also he’s totally welcome there and Dean loves him and Sam’s only being weird about this because he feels like a third wheel and is making DEAN’S life hell for it in the only way a little sibling who learned to punish people through well-meant bratty little sibling behaviour can… :P

Well, home will still be very snarky and passive aggressive when he lives there but at least it will feel like HIS snarky passive-aggressive hunter-filled home.

(Angels referring to humans as monkeys is an age old sign they can’t be trusted or have the Wrong Morals, like Uriel especially since that’s how we were introduced to the idea that calling us “mud monkeys” was “close to blasphemy” - which already undermines that Cas was always an “angel’s angel” because it sounds like this is exactly how to describe beard!angel, and hey MAYBE CAS WAS PROJECTING BASED ON HIS ENVIRONMENT, NOT LIKE DEAN DOES THAT ALL THE TIME TO FIT IN OR ANYTHING)

I have collected so many emotional parallels between season 4 Cas and early seasons Dean in this one conversation that will utterly destroy me next time I wander through season 4, which was already riddled with this parallel in the original subtext >.>

-

Also not for nothing but beard!angel does look vaguely like John & seems like him in the older male alpha authority figure way he acts. Dean is rejecting him which is great, but he has standards about what makes an angel (read: man) which doesn’t fit with the true self we know of Cas (read: Dean, who is of course, “humanity”) and clearly these are outdated societal angel things which he holds to…

welp

-

“have some pie” (why do I feel like he’s walking off to be Lily Sundered?)

Great parting words though. Dean is like “don’t mind if I do” when he sees how much money the angel threw down. Of course it’s mocking them for their attachment as family, but it’s a value that is the CORE of the show - humanity and love and family - which pie represents in all its forms. A barb telling them to have pie because it’s apparently demeaning to like these things (and below an angel to care for a family of humans like this) is no insult at all to the people who ACTUALLY LIKE PIE.

-

Sam moves over so Dean and Cas can share the seat together. Nicely done.

-

Captain of the SS Destiel and desperately trying to steer it through the storm to its berth :P

-

“Ishim” apparently. Dean immediately defends Cas against him once he’s gone, like, Cas doesn’t deserve to be treated that way. BECAUSE DEAN APPRECIATES HIM.

Not that Cas may be able to recognise what just happened there because wow they’re all dug in on their fight :P

-

“No one gets to be a dick to my husband except me”

-

Not surprisingly, Ishim then gets attacked and lightly stabbed.

(that was a pun. Because angels bleed light -

I’ll show myself out)

-

Cas shows up and injures Lily in a surprisingly similar way.

-

I’m still impressed with her absorbing and using an angel smiting for power.

-

Ishim says “I’m fine” which is such a part of the SPN vocabulary I don’t even know what that means except that he’s absorbed the same rules about it somewhere or other. :P Cas had to explain it to Hannah about why humans do it, but I think angels come on a range of personality types and Ishim is definitely of the better socialised type than say, Mirabelle, who was very angel-y, especially with how she stood the whole time watching them, and still had more of a uniform look to her clothes then Ishim who’s just wearing a nice suit.

-

I do like the church they’re holed up in

-

Hrm, vaguely annoyed about the “came to earth” turn of phrase, because I always took the watching over it to mean they were literally around on earth, though not in vessels and obviously as true forms very distant and above it all.

It’s making my thumb itch that Cas had a vessel before Jimmy but I’ve been bracing myself for this retcon for ages so I’m just going to have to live with it :P

The fact that Ishim is the one dude and the other angels are all in female vessels does look, in this period costume, kind of odd. He has a little flock or something :P Weird gender role stuff going on here. I mean, from an outside view. To Cas, gender is nicely explained by that little exchange where Dean was like “Benjamin’s a woman?” and Cas was like, “Benjamin’s an ANGEL. His vessel is a woman” - so pronouns apply to them if they like them, but the real distinction is really not that important because what they are is genderless wavelengths with a consciousness that may like to be one or the other in a vessel or for it not to matter, or to prefer a pronoun that applies to them regardless of vessel or… it’s wobbly. The important thing is they’re angels :P Idk if I should have celebrated this louder back in the car discussion because I always took it as canon and especially with Hannah in season 10 something the show sort of went over again to make it a bit more clear, but with more hindsight maybe this really is taking what was strictly still sort of headcanon when it comes to expressly TALKING about how angels identify, and putting it in the text, aka definitely and finally queering all the angels ever, forever)

Anyway I had it paused on a lady with the Perfect Eyebrow and idk how the casting went for this but it was probably “can you do Cas’s Eyebrow” so now I should see how she handles the rest because I’m sold just on her resting Cas face :P

We know since 4x20 Cas would possess Claire, with absolutely no weirdness about it, but there’s enough blah about the circumstances that he might only have done it because the bloodline, emergency moment, Jimmy was in trouble etc… But here we have Cas clearly having freely chosen a female vessel (maybe an ancestor of the Novaks? Which would limit his choice if she was the only suitable one around at that point but eh >.>) and so that’s sort of… a big moment I guess… *see above: conversation about angel gender* I’m so used to thinking this is a totally normal thing that I have no idea how mindblowing this is for them to happily show Cas in a female vessel like this :P There was so much weirdness about Raphael swapping vessels - several characters got a shot in towards the end of season 6. And at least Metatron made a crack about Hannah swapping out Caroline and using a male one. But Cas is a major character and unlike Crowley briefly possessing women, the way angels possess people is very different (and the reminder that Benjamin was friends with his vessel from the start of the episode sort of works in general to show how angels have to have a more mutual compatibility with their vessel…)

It’s a pretty big thing, I guess. 

-

Benjamin is complaining about how wet it is on earth, but Ishim just confirmed all the spec that this is a human marrying an angel and I’m contemplating going out to stand in the rain and shriek into the sky so he’s got that all wrong. Rain is great, when you need to shriek :P

-

Obviously this is forefront a parallel to the Lucifer and nephilim thing, buuut I mean they’re in LOVE and MARRIED

who else in this episode is MARRIED

Oh right Sam had to yell at them to not drive into oncoming traffic because they were too busy being MARRIED

-

For the record, the description of the Nephilim here is killing me - it has grace and a human soul, and I’ve been speculating that Cas never lost his soul he had after being human, so he too has both. (Which makes him dangerous)

Revisiting nephilim is all Dabb because he wrote 8x22 which originally introduced the idea, and so I am now in a sort of danger zone for getting sucked riiight back into angel fall spell nonsense :P I have picked up a real aversion to wild speculation but this is my weak spot. The season 8-9 crazy Destiel optimism about that damn spell, and Dabb’s picking at all the loose ends this season, especially to get to the Nephilim, which plays such a key part in that beautiful, horrible idea that the last ingredient was “the grace of an angel in love with a human” and this is specifically WHY the spell makes the angels fall… Brings them down to the monkeys’ level :P Ishim would hate to know that detail of why he has no wings :P But, yeah, that the spell was a punishment or reward that comes as a result of angels mingling with humans (and I still think God preferred angels to like humans, so this taboo comes from angel society, that Ishim represents and is denouncing in front of Cas)

It’s times like this I remember the translation to the angel tablet is just sitting in the bunker in a language Cas can read and I need to go shriek in the rain some more

-

I guess Ishim is like the homophobic, racist uncle, we should treat this accordingly :P

(Benjamin also confirmed this is an angel-made rule)

-

Castiel moves like the Cas we know better :P I like her a lot.

-

I mean, she IS Cas, after all.

-

Aww Lily’s husband has great hair.

-

Ishim says that he was only supposed to watch and instead he took up with a filthy animal… hahahahahahahahaha *flashback within a flashback to the diner scene and Cas all crushed up against Dean*

No I’m fine why do you ask

-

“How could anyone know them and not love them” (re: humanity)

Help meee

-

Oh no, Castiel does the whole speech about why this angel broke the rules before they kill him :<

I mean… Delicious irony making Castiel say it because obviously later Cas has done a complete about turn on this, at least where loving humanity is concerned. Maybe not the fathering nephilim bit as he’s still out to get Holly and this is explaining WHY he knows it’s such a big deal (8x22 also showed him hesitant to kill the nephilim there until she turned on them and proved she was ready to act monstrously, and then he had no hesitation) although I hope this inspires him to be more sympathetic, remembering HOW cold and angelic he was back here and how he’s all in contrast to this now.

(I don’t think it’s weird Akobel makes that speech about humanity being great in front of Castiel, because although Cas clearly softens towards humans later and has a more sympathetic feeling than say, Uriel, who clearly is on a level with Ishim on this subject, by the time we meet him, or at least, after 3 episodes putting up with Dean, this mirrors Dean’s 4x22 speech, which means that this is a trial run that doesn’t convince Cas, because, well, there’s no weight behind it to TRULY make Cas think. 4x22 in contrast is SO powerful that Dean’s similar words have a huge weight of their friendship, his growing understanding of humanity, etc, that they land squarely on him and convince him to rebel)

-

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah and then Castiel flinches, clearly affected by this even though he knows the nephilim is an abomination and has to die :<

Always had that crack in his chassis…

-

I am glad that this is HOPEFULLY, via what they’ve set up in Cas’s emotional landscape here so far, going to let him get to a place where he chooses to either let Holly go and forget about this, or at least track her down but give her a choice and maybe some actual HELP with having to raise a devil baby if she chooses to do so. >.> Definitely showing us Cas feeling bad about killing nephilim that haven’t done anything, or given a chance to live their lives normally might NOT grow up awful (Jesse the forgotten antichrist comes to mind, never mind the nephilim we saw before who was living a completely peaceful life until Metatron ruined everything, as he tends to do)… I suppose it’s been Cas vs 2 nephilim now and Lucifer’s baby is the 3rd, so…

-

The message in 12x08 was so weird about it, there’s so much salvage work for me to even be sure I know which way is up with this but as a bare minimum making Cas conflicted about what to do about this issue is a start to make it less crazy with all these guys coming rushing to tell the woman what to do with her baby, even if it seems justified by the story that they seem to know best >.>

-

“It was necessary, it was right,” Cas says, looking horrified.

(Sam and Dean do too, and as I said, emotional compass…)

-

This is such a terrible plotline :P A sensible response back in 12x08 would have been like “hey you were coercively raped by the actual devil, just FYI about your baby” and she’d be like “oh shit that’s terrible” and go willingly choose to have an abortion (and therapy probably >.>) without anyone telling her to do it but the main characters weighing in with their info on nephilim and anti-christs they’ve already met and dealt with to give her some best case/worst case scenarios to help her decision >.> That’s the most political route because of actual choice and agency on the mother’s part but eh. A lot of times in media they toe a safe line of considering abortion and confirming it’s a thing that happens and isn’t inherently evil but then the preggers character involved magically decides that they’re fine and will keep the baby for personal reasons for the story to avoid going there and praising abortion for saving desperate people >.> Or well, unless it’s a tragedy, but still a terrible idea to have the baby for everyone involved, in which case stories tend to throw a last minute miscarriage their way…

12x08 was just a mess though so had the poor woman in a room full of people yelling at her and attacking her in Lucifer’s case about what she was supposed to do, and then she legged it and immediately decided to keep the baby and - this could have been better handled, even in a toeing a really safe bland line, is all I’m saying >.>

-

“we completed a mission, it was necessary, it was right.” - Cas falling back on old angelic behaviour to explain it because the mission and their purpose was absolute and you didn’t question it.

“You say so,” says Dean, still annoyed with Cas for the last big decision he made where he thought he was doing something necessary and right by killing Billie.

(I notice this involves a lot of murder for the protagonists to work out how they feel about the big issues… Great :P)

But yeah, killing kids is like the no.1 no-no and used to show Dean stepping over the line in 10x22, and now Cas reveals he was complicit in killing a kid before. (Ishim is probably not going to make it out of the episode, and certainly doesn’t deserve to, by SPN’s rules :P)

-

I love the exchanges where they’re like just “Dean.” “Cas.” because saying each other’s names is enough to say everything they need to because they’ve been over arguments like this so much by now.

(I think Sam and Dean do it too but for some reason I don’t pay as much attention to it :P)

-

Meanwhile: Sam puts his foot in his mouth implying to Cas that the angels sort of deserved what was coming to them (which is a fair opinion but maybe don’t tell Cas if you think that :P)

The following orders thing tends to go pretty far with angels when you throw in brainwashing (and how Cas was already at this point many many layers of reprogrammed by Naomi since she refers to doing it to him in Biblical times, so if he felt bad about this it may have been hammered back out of him for a while after) but Ishim really is kind of being presented as a total dick about it in a sort of unrepentant way that paints a target on him as a rightful character to feel deserves it, while though Cas and the others were following orders and enforcing their society’s rules that they never questioned (and would be killed if they questioned too hard or lost faith in the power structure) and in COMPARISON to Ishim who is being used as a scapegoat by the story, clearly are less deserving of punishment, especially Cas who has learned SO HARD in many ways what is right and wrong (though this seems to be a big hurdle he has left). It makes it a bit unfair to only have left the most symapthetic angel by a billion miles compared to any of the others, because we’ve been so far with him, and Ishim, who has clearly not changed a jot :P

-

Sam says Cas is “different now” :3

-

Clearly the easiest way out is to be like, “look Cas is now married to Dean so OBVIOUSLY has changed his ways” and honestly Captain Sam of the SS Destiel, I’m not sure he’s not suggesting it.

-

Cas talking about how she “won’t quit” to avenge her family reminds me that this is a plot we have had before, with whatsisface in 10x02 coming back for Dean. I also watched 7x03 last, with Amy Pond’s poor son who vowed vengeance on Dean and disappeared to grow up some more and honestly season 7 is now so long ago he MUST be ready to come kill Dean but here we are with Cas finally having it happen to him :P Oh the Dean and Cas story overlaps :’)

-

I really really really love Lily Sunder and her actress is great :D That healing scene was, no pun intended, SO CHARGED.

(little bit of a pun intended)

-

(Kinda sad after seeing the flashback I can’t write her and Cas as lesbians :P)

-

Meanwhile in Cas’s healing scene - weird shades of 8x17 and Cas and Meg, with the way Cas is tending to an ambiguous friend with a history (Wait. Same director? Yeah, same director), and clearly caring about him enough to heal him (didn’t heal Meg magically and I’ve always suspected angel magic is a bit of a blunt weapon that would had smote her if he’d tried, even if he meant no harm >.>) - something about Cas’s face while he tends to him, especially, because he’s poking around instead of just flinging some glowy light at him, which makes this whole set up of playing nurse, which Cas never normally has when healing people since he just puts his hand on them and fixes them. It’s automatically a much more tender, intimate scene. If this was Dean and Cas, people would spontaneously combust.

-

God damn this episode is doing some amazing things with inverting and playing with gender and stuff

-

Ishim has to ruin it by complaining about Cas letting the ‘simians’ talk to him…

“When did you get so gooey” I mean really, this is so seductive the way he’s lying there and Cas is messing around with taking off his clothes? He and Lily had very similarly placed wounds for this parallel… but.

But yeah, calling Cas “gooey” really, really sounds like Meg.

oh god this speech from him…

“You know why we’re meant to stay away from humans? It’s not because we’re a danger to them. They’re a danger to us.”

UGH

Brb

/rain  
/shrieking

etc

-

If this episode has not already confirmed on at least 3-4 occasions already that Cas is totally in love with Dean I don’t even know what it’s for :P

-

“My friendship with Sam and Dean has made me stronger”  
“You can’t really believe that” NO AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM RIGHT NOW.

Dean needs to do the whole boombox held up outside Cas’s window love declaration and fix this >.>

I mean it is true that Cas is stronger, infinitely, than when we first met him, because of all he’s been through for Sam and Dean, but… He doesn’t see it :<

-

I think it’s stopped raining so if I need to shriek I don’t know where to go

-

I LOVE that after Cas is done healing the ding from the elevator overlaps him fixing Ishim and almost seems like a microwave ding telling us he’s ready.

-

The fact this is about someone killing angels (never mind the Uriel reference) really does make the plot mirror 4x16 on Cas’s side; that episode ditches Sam and Dean not long past the halfway point to become completely about angel drama and Cas’s decision… Nice.

-

Lots of Edlund mirroring this season.

-

“Then we burn that bridge when we come to it” HAH. :D Love that messed up idiom so much. It’s such the Winchester way.

-

I love how they just walk into Lily in the corridor.

“We don’t wanna kill you” “I don’t want to kill you” “Okay! Good, look, there we go, agreed” Sam you fucking third wheel master level dork. He’s been mediating so many fights that even when he’s in the middle of one as a participant he takes on this role :P

-

Also aaaaaaaah saying Cas is their family. I mean it gets said a fair few times, but it’s always so lovely to hear it coming out of Dean’s mouth.

-

Oh my god Alicia Witt is amazing

-

*looks around for something to scream into*

*picks Mittens’s chat bubble since the sky is not in the right setting*

Love triangle plot twist!

Which I probably should have seen coming if I wasn’t comparing what Ishim said to Cas so much that I forgot he was also saying it about himself. I sort of dimly registered it without thinking it would apply to something immediate :P

I guess now we know Cas has been super lied to he’s even more blameless (in the narrative) for acting out orders that were wrong, aka basically all the Heaven nonsense where the angels get manipulated. LIKE 4x16 WHERE HE HAD BAD ORDERS TO ASK ALISTAIR WHO WAS KILLING ANGELS… Now it’s WHY she’s killing angels (showing again in 2 words how the show has changed in tone :P) Anyway… because they were clearing up Ishim’s petty family feud for him in an abuse of power, it makes the other angels victims of Ishim’s choice, especially now Lily is killing them for it.

-

I wonder if her research ended up with the MoL because it’s always been a weird question of how they had so much info about research on angels and if this is clearing up a weird thing from 9x11, well… Robbie’s being taken to the cleaners this episode on a few things already :P There’s literally so much going on I haven’t managed to cover it all.

-

ANYWAY everyone’s in love with humans, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

-

What is this episode even saying about Cas.

-

I mean I know what I will interpret it as saying but

-

Yockey, explain yerself

-

“I loved you” “You were obsessed with me, that isn’t love” Oh dear, we’re getting into details about what is and isn’t love now.

-

You know, like the whole “love and… love” distinctions.

-

angel love triangle drama is so tense.

-

“You are powerless” So she goes and becomes the Most Powerful Ever - a human literally on the level of angels, or BETTER than them, to get her revenge. Nice.

I really love Lily Sunder, and I thought I would because of the name, but yeah, good hunch about that. :P

-

“You broke my heart so I’m going to break yours” :< :< :< :<

-

….

TERRIBLE timing to bring it up, but… 6x20 > 6x22, Cas breaking Sam’s wall to keep Dean out the way. >.>

-

Oh no the daughter was human… WAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

-

This is like 1000% worse. I suppose for the previous stuff I was saying about it comparing to the Nephilim arc, Cas’s guilt over this if/when he finds out will I suppose be a really heavy blow about Heaven’s rules about Nephilim, since his obedience to them was used against him - and all the others who were in the dark - for this petty, evil revenge.

-

I like how Dean is just “he’s a tool” about Ishim and phones Cas to… check Ishim is a big old tool?

Letting Cas know while he’s alone with Ishim seems like a great way to flip from hunting Lily to needing her to help save Cas and get revenge on Ishim :P

Also I suppose Ishim turning on Cas (I hope but AAAH NOO CAS) would be a good way to convince Lily he’s not evil/complicit if Ishim is having problems with him.

-

Heh, Sam’s being left with Lily and Dean goes to check on Cas. What a wild surprise.

-

Oh dear, Cas is sassing Ishim which means even Cas knows he’s contemptible now. The “oh goodie” sounds like Cas in the same room as CROWLEY. I suppose we’re meant to assume Ishim stole his phone as well now

This would be a very good time to address that Lily can hack angel radio to message them but Dean doesn’t think to pray?

Anyway Cas is not doing so great which seems to parallel that Lily healing herself seemed to really hurt her?

-

Can’t believe they cover a plothole with Lily being like, nah, I just thought I’d wait and see what happened and if any of them came back to Earth I’d get them. 

Then had the angel fall spell dropped in her lap.

It seems like there should be a way to bridge her research with Metatron and the fact he made up his own spells including potentially that one. Off the books angel know-how. Like the MoL have… 

The show is never ever going to link this all up so it will just continue to bug me forever I guess :P I’m patient, I can wait over 100 years for more information to drop from the sky.

-

The fact the angel fall spell is connected to nephilim and has been mentioned a couple of times is making me reeeeally itchy in those old thumbs again

-

If Dabb wants a second crack at all that teasing, BE MY GUEST

-

Sam asking questions about magic… uhoh.

Nah, the price is soullessness, of a sort. Maybe becoming an angel? Is that possible? She might just burn out, hand of God style. Anyway Sam won’t go for it. HE KNOWS THAT COST. 

FOILED AGAIN. No witch!Sam this year.

Meanwhile: actually tearing at my own soul in horror about the fact she’s burning away her soul to use angel magic and I am of the opinion Cas has a soul and HE does angel magic but… he’s caring more and more?? Can you do this in reverse? Use up your angel grace and if you have a human soul waiting underneath, just reboot in a different operating system?

What the heck.

I need to eat more pasta. Can’t deal with this.

-

But yeah the episode has made a big deal about human souls and angel grace, and suggesting how they can live in a body together, either with Lily slowly replacing her soul, or with the nephilim having both naturally… Cas of course is an abomination.

(sorry Cas, your own words will eventually always come back to bite you :P)

-

Oh no, Lily’s reached the stage where she doesn’t dream any more :( Oh no Lily.

-

Lily is so good at patience. I love her. Although argh it’s because she’s got the emotional room to wait. Less soul to worry her. She just has to hope she reaches the end goal before she runs out of caring for it, or that her robo-self like Soulless Sam did, will carry on the “job” they define themselves by without emotionally caring for why they do it - also very Mark of Cain-y, taking on a thing like that to fling themselves at the target without a care for what happens to them in the process…

-

I’m guessing by now that Ishim has done something to Cas to make him weak :<

-

I did the “AAH OTP INTERACTING” fist pump when Dean rushed over to Cas all urgent and worried, and now Dean’s just… like. Holding Cas. Help. I think I dislocated a finger making frantic handwaving :P

-

My arm legit really hurts.

-

Oh god Ishim is making Cas choose between “heaven” aka Ishim’s shitty side, and Dean. Guess we’re back at 9x22.

-

“Why do his words bother you so much, Ishim” Ooooooh

This is going to be so bitchy

so so bitchy

-

*Cas squints harder*

-

“Well it sees some of my choices may need to be questioned” if you HAVE to concede a fight with your husband, this is the most badass way to do it so that it still seems like you at least half-won :P

-

Aw Caaaas all the beating up on him from the promos we assumed Lily did were Ishim’s fault.

-

Dean just needs to know a human girl was killed and that’s it, he goes for Ishim with a knife :D (“You’re not going to like the answer” says it all, by implying that Cas’s love for humanity will of course be what makes him hate it… AAAH)

-

“I used to envy you, Castiel” was that because he WASN’T in love with a human and now that’s changed? :P

-

Oh no, he “just” cites Cas being chosen by God, before pointing out he’s now sad and weak. Ishim sees that love as weakness.

-

Also Cas getting straddled by Ishim goes with that weirdly erotic subtext from earlier when Cas was healing him.

-

:< Cas lying there miserably after being beaten into submission. Now this has shades of 10x22 at the end - Ishim in the place of Dean - are we working through THAT trauma too… I am not up to this. Ow.

-

10x22 getting a little revisit (OH CAS NO) followed by Ishim saying he’s going to go “cut out Cas’s human weakness” by going to kill Dean

uh

paralleled directly to how he KILLED HIS HUMAN LOVER

I also thought from “cut out” it was going to be a reverse 8x23, and Ishim would split his throat and literally take something from Cas, like a SOUL or something. Then he said about himself, but split second panic there.

-

no biggie this is only literally THE MOST DESTIEL SHIT TO HAPPEN IN YEARS

-

HOLY CRAP then Dean picks CAS over banishing Ishim when he shows Cas is Dean’s weakness too i

am probably burning my dinner in the oven

-

Yay hi Lily

-

KILL HIM

-

YAY more teamwork

I love when they do the teamwork thing. It’s a reoccurring theme this season, or maybe Yockey just likes it because 12x06 had the best teamwork ending.

-

AAAH LILY

-

This parallels 4x16 and Sam vs Alistair almost directly in staging

Except then Cas backstabs Ishim

he had it coming :P

-

Oh god and then Cas is on his knees, I mean, he drops to them because he’s weak but it also puts him in a penitent position in front of Lily

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL BLOODSTAINED SON

This also mirrors 4x16 and how he was on his knees in front of Uriel, the real threat of the episode for him.

-

I guess she decides not to kill Cas

-

Nice.

-

Oh look at poor Cas sitting there :(

-

I love that even though Lily’s threat was she’d be beyond emotion, Dean tries to make this about revenge and killing some more to handle what next, but Cas goes straight to “i’m sorry” and Lily looks genuinely moved

-

Oh CAS you’re so good.

-

And Lily thanks him and walks off :’)

-

Oh dear, some over-running the episode length into a scene at the Bunker

Awww Dean giving Cas a beer and a shoulder pat and secret loving shoulder stroke. Dude. Someone needs to gif that in slow mo.

-

Oh god they’re actually giving Cas a REAL you’re family speech without any reasons to cut this short or make it not feel good

-

Sam’s there too despite this having been all about Dean and Cas, just to smooth things over. :P

-

“I’m not mad I’m worried” Oh man all this stuff in the main text sucks because I deduced this back at the start through clever analysis of their dialogue and now what I can tell from this line is that… Dean is worried about Cas.

-

Look at their eyes

-

Waaah

-

Cas still looks beat up which is rare for him not to immediately snap back to normal. I worried.

-

Heh, Cas hasn’t changed that much - all that and he still has carefully set separate rules for each situation, and KNOWING that Lucifer’s baby really is Lucifer’s, well… Unless he’s been lied to about HOW dangerous Nephilim are… He still thinks he has a point.

Sam tries to compare scenarios

And Cas says he doesn’t know what he’ll do or if he’ll hesitate. It HAS affected him. YAY. Episode’s goal accomplished in the final moment.

-

Okay this is clearly a motto of the ENTIRE show: “let’s drink, and hope we can find a better way”

-

Can’t believe Dean and Cas are married.


	11. 12x11

image  
For once I think it’s kind of obvious what my expectations are if you’ve been reading my blog… I also was spoiled last night after it aired that my favourite reoccurring guest star is in it, but on the other hand there’s a ton of second hand embarrassment… I’ve just got back from yoga so let’s try and be zen and enjoy it :P

-

Also it’s not a plot episode so I can be a bit more chill and enjoy the MotW nonsense without writing 100 miles of meta. I hope

-

Witches! (we already knew that, I’m just putting another note into “the only actual monster we’ve seen so far has been the one werewolf and one vampire Mary killed and everyone else has been a human, angel or demon this season” jar

I need a better label for that jar

Anyway from the looks of things this episode is all about a very human fear that just happens to be tripped by witchcraft and it would be a fucking waste not to milk it for 99% of the episode)

-

Holy shit they used the “poor little guy” from 3x09 that always breaks my heart. Are they really churning up old Edlund stuff so much that the recap was 90% 3x09 and they decided to give Dean a bunny BECAUSE of his broken heart at the sight of the dead bunny in 3x09?

I really hope Edlund is watching this season and laughing like crazy

Anyway before the promo is even over, we have an interesting point of thought for the episode, and a comparison back to Dean revealing a weird vulnerability for no reason in the middle of a case. And more Edlund parallels than you can shake a stick at.

-

Oh good the cold open is the witch who curses Dean… Definitely going to milk this for all it’s worth. This is like fan fics where the first like 3 paragraphs are “and then they met a witch and it cursed them and then ran off or got killed” and all the rest is just whatever they actually wanted to write.

More Dean running around in woods (Purgatory callbacks), and mirroring a few episodes which started with the traditional cold open victim actually being the monster pursued by hunters.

-

Dean waking up lying in the forest on the ground… He’s done that a few times, in more dire circumstances I’ve seen paralleled together - 11x01 and 5x04. Interestingly I guess knocked out both times by a dark mirror to himself but who would never actually harm him. There’s something peaceful about the way he has the bunny hanging out with him.

It makes him seem harmless too.

…

You know I could stop watching this show right here… I’ve seen 12x10 and now I’ve seen Dean Winchester calmly pick up a rabbit and call it “buddy” I mean… is there even anywhere to go from here?

But I’ve heard Kuma is in the episode so I shall press on

-

Like, emotionally though, I think the show might be over for me :P

-

The town is called “Eureka Springs” which is kind of funny, because of the double water association and of course the association to revelation and learning. We gonna get a big scientific discovery about Dean outside of the now doubly confirmed fact that rabbits are his favourite animal?

-

KUMA

Oh dang he’s got a big part here… Do I gif all of it?

-

I should probably backtrack because I was just reading myself writing about 2x20 for some reason this morning (I think I was looking for something else completely unrelated) and I stumbled on a little discussion about subverting it or, well, its obvious relevance now Mary is around. The woman with the stroller assumes Dean is homeless and tells him not to buy a drink when she gives him some cash, which I guess was a thing in that episode that everyone assumed Dean was a drunk. It’s a tiny detail (I mean, he IS an alcoholic, although functioning better than usual and his drinking has got a lot better since he lost the Mark) but if we’re peeling back Dean, I think an interesting little one to start with.

I mean, we’ve started with Purgatory!Dean, and Actual Fluffy Bunny Lover Dean, so… it’s a bit wild.

-

Dean remembers Sam’s number.

Not where he is though.

Waffles! I’m with Dean here.

I too drop everything in a crisis when waffles are an option and someone’s just paid me to leave them alone.

(Okay that’s never happened - I’m delightful)

“What psycho doesn’t love waffles” I mean come on even METATRON loved waffles, although they did not love him. Which is perhaps a more important sign of how dreadful he was :P

-

Ah jeeze I really want waffles.

-

Promo scene!

We have NO idea what Dean did the night before, so the thing with the girl is even more out of context… I wonder what it will end up being about? He looked like he was pretty busy hunting that witch last night. Events do not add up.

-

Sam has been convinced by Dean asking for painkillers that it’s a hangover, and I think *Dean*, knowing himself, might think he just got blackout drunk somehow. The woman telling him not to buy a drink remains vaguely important, thematically…

-

Sam also is getting concerned, and makes a general life advice warning to Dean to stop drinking so much.

-

Okay the girl who slapped Dean comes in, looks at him and goes “oh my god” and is ushered away by her friend - did THAT happen in the promo?

No, no it did not. Her response is given way more attention here - that was definitely edited out for the promo. Crafting the scene to look like something different. Huh. (I mean I know they’ve used different takes in promos, like in 10x01 using one which completely changed how much of a jerk Demon!Dean looked from the finished product… They do really manipulate these things.)

-

I really like how we’re dumped on this case like Dean is - we only have one advantage, that we’re already aware he’s cursed while he isn’t. Aside from that, we seem to be discovering it like Dean is, like how Sam springs the idea we’re going to the morgue next on us.

-

Also did Dean lick his knife more intently in the promo asking for a friend

-

Huh I don’t think her interaction with him has changed very much - I’m pretty sure she did just say hi then slap him in the promo too. The way she stopped when she saw him though is very suspicious because she sounded so horrified to see him.

-

Oh no Sam and Dean are wearing nice coats with their suits. I guess there’s gonna be a lot of gifs :P

-

Really pretty morgue technician with no lines. Honestly if she doesn’t get killed off that will mean finally after a lousy streak, we make it through an episode without a black woman being killed.

-

Well the first thing to go is Dean’s ability not to be squeamish and weird. There’s definitely a text post out there making fun of Dean for spending a year in Purgatory covered in guts, but getting weird about using a public telephone. Well, whatever barrier Dean has up about guts is aaall gone.

Please don’t puke, we’ve made it over a season without you puking on screen and we’re doing so well.

-

Oh no is this where Dean crashes the car. He’s disappearing fast :< I thought that might be later in the episode.

I suppose Sam has to realise eventually that something is wrong with Dean.

I can’t believe Sam lets Dean drive when he’s “plastered”… I mean he must drive over the legal limit basically all the time and Sam’s used to it, but can we just… make this a “wear seatbelts” road safety episode? Please take that car away from him, Sam.

-

OH NO Sam takes this moment for honesty hour - “Makes me want to crawl into a bottle too” - when Sam is drinking we KNOW it because he so rarely does it as a coping mechanism. I am indescribably sad about him saying that he feels this way :(

I mean I just take it for granted that Dean feels like shit so it’s easier to deal with that :P I’ve been worried about Sam all season and he gives so few clues it’s basically a pictures on a board linked with red string scenario to deduce if he’s happy or not >.>

-

FINDING DORY REFERENCE

“Not going to apologise for loving that fish. Not to you, not to anyone.” Dean has his barriers down and he does not care who knows he likes watching Disney movies. And the fact that it’s probably Sam he’s most prickly around when it comes to protecting that facade… Sam is, well, gonna learn a lot about Dean he feels like he probably didn’t want to know :P

-

Honestly, Dean is me trying to remember the names of common household appliances.

There’s something really bitchy about the way Sam labels the light stick and then covers the rest of the room in post it notes, even though Dean hasn’t forgotten what they all are yet.

-

Rowena! :D Mostly because Dean doesn’t want to bother Mom or Cas… I notice something there - Cas is someone who a few years ago they’d have absolutely bothered for some weird magical problem. Now Dean wants to keep EMOTIONALLY distant from them because they’re his family and he doesn’t want to worry them/them to see him like this/him to blurt anything he doesn’t remember he isn’t supposed to say… In this case the fact that Dean DOESN’T want to call Cas for help sure says a lot more about how much he likes him.

Anyway Rowena is a badass and I love how she gets into these weird scenarios. This one is much better than all the finding a rich husband and killing him malarky - fleecing rich dudes over rigged poker games is definitely more empowering :P

-

Okay yeah one of those post it notes says “Wall” - there is definitely a montage we missed of Sam being a hilarious bitch about it to Dean, and they’re only phoning for help once it got kind of really not funny any more.

-

I wish we saw that

-

Dean and his “ICE BUCKET” what a tragedy

-

“All these dumps look the same” Dude, don’t be rude to Wanek. I’ll assume this is because you can’t REMEMBER them.

-

Also the whole, living in a billion motels and until recently never having a place to call home thing - I was joking ages ago about Dean keeping a scrapbook about all the weird motels they went to or stealing mementos from them to remember the truly tacky ones… But the idea that almost all of them completely blur in his mind and he just doesn’t notice or appreciate the differences…

-

I love using Dean’s “the last thing I kinda sorta remember” to take us to the office. They mentioned Memento but honestly I’m still thinking “Dude where’s my car” although I know Dabb hasn’t watched that because he’s deathly afraid of Emus, so it’s possible Glynn had to sell the Memento angle despite having other things in mind.

Like Finding Dory

-

Dean steals a cigar (or two) - more implications that he smokes. I suppose when an angel heals you regularly or you were immortal for like a year and a half you kind of don’t think of the consequences. I know some people don’t really *smoke* smoke, but would have a good cigar if it came their way like this… I think Dean kind of has smoked in phases through the show, especially when he was younger, never mind all the implications he smokes weed, so… him stealing a few cigars is just more sneaky referencing this.

-

To the bar! Hey, waitress Dean got slapped by!

We have more stuff with the names and badges - Dean messing up getting his badge out in time because he forgets to do it, forgetting what their cover is… Basically, a little demonstration that he’s forgetting their covers in general - HIS covers in general. The FBI identity is something I’ve written reams on so I won’t go into it but yeah it’s his Performing!Dean next layer up, and what he does with it can often tell us stuff about how he’s acting with his more sturdy and thorough Performing!Dean layer underneath, before we get to fluffy bunny lover Dean who watches Finding Dory.

Anyway she calls him out for using ANOTHER name the night before, and he’s like “sometimes we have to lie to protect our cover” which is the most Dean saying ever.

-

Oh hey and then as usual with the badge thing, a moment later we’re slammed with something RIDICULOUS like, for example:

“And then you hit the bull.”  
“What??” < both Winchesters  
“Oh yeah, you had the hots for Larry as soon as you walked in.”  
“He - you… rode Larry?”  
*Dean shrugs like whatever* “Was I good?”

yeah so that’s not a coded conversation that sounds SUPER FUCKING GAY out of context and considering the “hots for Larry” comment, doesn’t do so badly IN context, especially as it’s such a, uh, suggestive thing :P There’s a girl riding it in the background and yeah, the whole movement to keep on the bull? I know it seems like a manly sport, but it involves a lot of writhing and pelvic movement and that bull is like as masculine an icon as you can get.

And Dean had the hots for it

oh god :P

-

Worked to win the waitress over anyway :P

And she apologises for taking advantage of him. Wow. I don’t think Sam and Dean even know what all those words mean put together in that order. :P

-

“First action in I don’t know how long, and it’s like it never even happened. Figures.”  
“See now that’s comedy”

When WAS the last time Dean hooked up? Back in season 11 some time… 11x13 it was suggested. (I have a lot of Snymelo vibes from this episode)

-

Honestly Cas is living right at the Bunker just man up and go talk to him and I guarantee that I could get you some action in about 2 lines of dialogue if you let me…

-

(Sadly last episode actually convinced me that there’s really good reasons Cas hasn’t made a move and Dean is pining unsuccessfully after him so I can’t even be mad :P)

-

“It’s like watching myself on netflix” Aw

-

“I know how to shoot a gun!??”

:D Oh sweetie

-

Sam giving Dean the Talk.

No that sort of talk. the “monsters are real” talk.

You know who does that? CRAZY PEOPLE.

Nope, “Awesome. That’s awesome.”

He’s feeling a bit better about the job I guess than back in Yellow Fever where he had the equivalent moment.

-

Aw he found a torch! He’s so happy! “I’ll man the flashlight” Yeah this is Yellow Fever again :P

-

Oh god we’re only 18 minutes what can possibly-

Jesus Christ Siren Episode reference You’ve not talked about that for EIGHT YEARS.

See, last night I compared these 2 episodes before this one ever aired with the assumption that the Yellow Fever parallels might be obvious but the Siren Episode would only be a sort of leech onto that because of its own parallels to Yellow Fever so we would have to walk through YF as an intro to the Siren Episode and how it could be applied to this one

(Sue me I was already planning the meta and this episode is following the exact same pattern as Yellow Fever and the Siren Episode so I’m feeling really vindicated, right about now :P)

The point I made LAST night was that Sam had been reading Dean wrong all this time and messing up his chance to understand him in the previous episodes. This time, Sam doesn’t really have any reason why he’d get Dean wrong? The enemy of the season is miscommunication and not understanding Dean is Sam’s biggest miscommunication.

Whether he’s taking advantage of Dean’s cheerful no-memory state, and the suspicion Dean won’t remember him bringing it up again or what, Sam feels secure telling Dean about the Siren, at least I assume not telling Dean HE was attracted to it, but that this is a thing that happens. Dean can’t lash out, Dean doesn’t feel defensive… He just takes this information as Sam tells it to him without being weird about it.

The fact Sam remembered and wanted to tell Dean though… Well, like I said, Yellow Fever and the Siren Episode are basically the same thing ESPECIALLY from Sam’s perspective. Here he is for the 3rd time and Dean’s all fucked up again, and no wonder Sam remembers.

He also mentioned Djinn “not granting wishes” which means my reference to 2x20 earlier was super legit. *more smugness*

(sorry :P This episode is fun. I like that the new writers have watched the show)

Anyway, I’ll be thriving off that reminder for a while :D Better carry on watching before I get sucked into a vortex of comparing episodes before I even know how this one goes.

-

Aw Sam calls it “the Talk”

-

“Best job ever!”

Dean thinks they sound like heroes, Sam, who has the lived experience, voices some actual goddamn complaints about the job. GO SAM. I guess he’s thinking Dean won’t remember this conversation and so he can voice some things.

So HE does the “you know who does that? CRAZY PEOPLE” speech that Dean didn’t make.

-

AAAAAAAAAAAAH  
Bloody handprint. “Our best friend’s an angel! WHaaaaaat!!!”  
I worry :P

-

Cas will be fine, I don’t think Jared’s even had his 3rd kid yet. Misha needs to give them all paternity leave by having more Cas-centric episodes.

What a beautiful set up. Smol babies and more Cas.

-

But yeah something horrid might happen to Cas briefly.

-

Also Sam told Dean that he was “our best friend” and so Dean is totally failing to grasp exactly what Cas means to him.

He probably only remembers Sam as well as he does because he’s right in front of him - if Dean had been with Mary or Cas he’d have forgotten the other 2

-

“Is that a dead guy?”

Dean looks grossed out but also “Cool!” because dead monster.

-

Witches! These guys seem like fun people.

-

“I want my family back” she says while having Mary’s hair and looking at the dead guy.

Oh dear.

-

“Is that a dead guy?”

Sam needs to get a post it note for the dead guy.

-

ROWENA

“your hair is so bouncy” I think Dean is full of cute observations like this he’s just never allowed to say and I think that’s so sweet I might barf.

(You should hear how he talks about Cas ANYWAY)

-

Dean remembers porn but not quality TV oh dear >.> Sam puts Scooby Doo on for him, which I guess is sort of Dean’s role in this episode :P More dogs on TV - reminder of the second “dog that thinks it’s people” line with the person who said it the first time in the room…

-

“Dean Winchester is going to die.” “Sucks for that guy!”  
Well at least he’s happy :P

-

Sam drags him away for a toilet conversation

-

Dean briefly regains a sense of self and is miserable

Sam why did you do that

-

“You know, I’ve seen my brother die, but watching him become… not him. This might actually be worse” Please, you watched him descend into the Mark of Cain and then babysat demon!Dean for an episode, this isn’t new :P

-

OH SHIT here’s the “my name is Dean Winchester” speech and it’s delivered directly into a mirror I am not going to make it

-

That was terrible also can I have a new heart something happened to this one *shows a box of shards to the cashier*

-

Sam don’t be bitchy to Rowena when she’s the only one who can help.

-

And Dean is struggling to remember anything

-

Oh nooooo

-

Poor Dean :( :( :(

-

or whoever he is

-

Sam is putting Dean’s life on the line to be weird about Rowena helping them.

-

OH NO Dean’s still struggling with it

“I don’t know”

*wails*

-

“Stop touching everything!”

I kind of love poor Dean when he’s like this :( He’s so sweet and… I don’t know. Living in the moment because that’s all he’s got.

-

Also who is that voodoo doll of because they’re having a terrible day too.

-

Aww Rowena already hates the British Men of Letters, so I guess she’ll be helping later.

-

“These witches sound like dicks. I think you have plenty of snuff.”

Dean interpreted that she was talking about herself despite not knowing anything. Dean is good at subtext.

Also that has real echoes of “Doug’s a dick, you deserve better” which made me squeee over Dean x Donna although obviously as the waitress said, it would be completely taking advantage of Dean so Rowena better not butter him up too much while his barriers are down. Especially as Dean has a “ugh witches!” gag reflex while himself.

It’s also interesting that this is a barriers down thing for him to say. He was still getting over ACTUALLY being roofied when they talked to Donna that time, and I didn’t think Dean was totally out of it there because he was engaged quite well in the conversation, but heh, it’s an interesting comparison.

-

“What a gift not to remember the things you’ve done!”

Oh no don’t TELL him, Rowena.

“You’re a killer” “scores of people” *gagging* “the greater good” (hey we had a “the greater good” earlier this season, right? I was laughing about the parallels to Hot Fuzz… Was it something the BMoL said? I see to recall paralleling their control of England to the baddies’ control of the village)

I like that Dean and Rowena both have a gag reflex about each other’s professions. But really loving this dynamic.

-

He might forget in a minute that Rowena told him he was a killer, at least.

-

Rowena having honesty hour because like Sam she’s assuming Dean won’t remember this (as you might have guessed I am fascinated about what Dean DOES remember about this)

-

“Power’s what matters” Oh my god she’s had actual character growth about this because of having to watch God and Amara suck at being the most powerful beings in the universe. Haaa.

-

Rowena does love nose-booping Dean

-

Sam is being pretty dangerous and scary in that way he gets when Dean is dying. Why do I get the feeling he’s about to get a lesson in being reckless.

-

I wonder what the butterflies symbolise. We’ve seen them on the show before, but in very different contexts. Hope someone else is on that because I have no immediate ideas. Like that they re-animate to cause harm. Not sure how much symbolism here for what though :P

-

Aw Rowena does care :D in her own way. No respect for the car. Pfft.

(I feel like someone’s gonna be all “Dean remembered Sam when he was in danger!” but the phone is right there with his name on so I’m not sure)

-

Having Gideon laid out like that is pretty ominous…

“We can bring him back!”

Yeah, okay, that was fairly obvious since he was still in the room the whole time :P

-

Wow guess they’re swapping Sam for him or something.

-  
Aw Rowena wearing a long black coat and being badass.

-

Eeeeee more Rowena backstory.

I love her so much.

I mean everything we learn about her is so sad but it makes her motivations to be badass and not take any shit and obtain wealth and have nice hair really sympathetic :P

-

I am really loving how they’re making Rowena more sympathetic.

-

Grenade launcher: DENIED

-

I swear to god this had better be building to Dean shooting it in 12x23 as the crowning moment of awesome for the season or what is even the point

-

Are these all Rowena’s notes or did Sam leave the ones in the trunk

-

Whoever did it (I shall have to look at your handwriting again) you did good.

BUT

It was using Dean as a weapon. He had no idea who he was, no purpose, just these orders/suggestions and he went on instinct, couldn’t even talk, COULD fire a gun, and had enough instinct to load the gun, walk into the house, and fight the witches.

I’m reminded of 9x21 (which I will be watching up next! Aaaah the dang rewatch! And GAVIN coming back…… Although maybe the new and improved Rowena might make that more interesting)… Whoops I… forgot… What I was saying. Uh. 9x21. Dean in the middle of the dark decent. Goes to kill Abaddon (mirrored in the fight with Lily and Ishim last episode), and for the entire scene from the moment he comes in the door, I think until they leave the building, Dean does not speak a word. He just goes in there on instinct, charges Abaddon, and pushes through he wall-shoving to get her, all on this brutal killer instinct that Rowena has reminded Dean he had.

Dean with no sense of self was very cute and goofy, but he retained his moral code (killing monsters bad, person who kills monsters hero) and he retained his killer instinct, so stripping him right down like that, I think this was the message of what has been programmed deepest into Dean, the things that would go last when everything else about him was disappearing. And considering I’ve been working through the last few episodes of season 9 lately, I’m chilled. :S Especially that the back up plan was to throw Dean at them as a weapon (I wonder if Rowena did it then, because Sam didn’t have the thought Dean would do it, unless he labelled it all when they knew it was witches, but earlier in the episode when he was going on his labelling spree)

-

Dean takes Sam on total trust as well about who is the witch and who is his brother. We don’t know if that was his instinct or being obedient to what he was told… I’m guessing this is going to be something with 2 readings.

I’m assuming the cheap answer is the love of his brother runs that deep and instinctively he would know.

-

Why was Sam NOT at the restoration… Aside from for setting up “who’s this hippy”

I mean they even used the sad family music! What jerks :P

-

Probably best to piss Sam off immediately so to avoid soppy hugs.

-

“Can’t believe you called Rowena” “Can’t believe you rode Larry” “Hey, I was awesome on that bull.”

THAT’S your take away from this, Sam? I mean I’m thrilled but that’s just… hilarious.

Especially as they don’t mention the waitress again so the reminder is all about Larry and not about Dean’s other conquest of the night :P I’m laughing.

-

Does this episode end with Sam leaving the super powerful book of spells on top of the impala and Dean drives off and it falls in the street

-

I say this because I’m feeling emotional about Rowena implying Dean should talk to her if he remembers their conversation, and Sam is now talking about how he’s jealous of Dean’s no-memories buzz

Dean is like “our life sucks but if I was happy I wouldn’t have a shot at hooking up with an angel”

-

Okay no Sam took the book of witchcraft.

That doesn’t bode well at all.

*she says vibrating with pent up frustration about how witch!Sam is being teased roughly twice a week with no pay off since like… ever*

-

Yay I knew we’d get to see Dean riding Larry at the end.

because this is Yellow Fever.

-

I like Yellow Fever.

-

This is sort of embarassing having all of the other Dean stuff in there… You should have just stuck with him and Larry

Let them have a moment.

This is their song.


	12. 12x12

Bearing in mind 12x04, Dean Winchester is to Davy Perez as car continuity is to Dabb. 

I trashed the last attempt to watch this episode because I was so ill yesterday I just stopped mid-sentence while trying to talk about the episode. Rewatching with a vague impression of what happened in it and my notes from yesterday to try and figure it out :P

* * *

> We had Azazel twice in the opening, once being shot by Dean once killing Mary. Reverse causality - seeing it in the wrong order.
> 
> I like that this very clearly connects Mary’s decision to work with the BMoL to her ongoing guilt about what happened to Sam/the world as a result of her deal. Her “Sorry” in 1x09 is something SHE doesn’t remember, and I feel Sam and Dean would have forgiven her anyway because it’s Mary, although even if it’s old news, I think there’s still tension from Sam’s side too about this, not just because Mary is being cold. Perez’s first episode, 12x04, laid it on the thickest about Sam and his powers arc and how he still carried that with him, and of course with the sort of timing where of course remembering it comes because Mary is back. All 3 MotW in the first part of the season shovelled it on, but then it went dormant while we were having other drama. I think this is the first time we see Mary work WITH them since 12x06?

^ I like the opening recap even more, now, because “the toys are the best part” actually really clearly lays out what this episode is about. Considering the framing of the episode and the one scene that comes outside of that, this rings even more true with hindsight, that the montage about all the stuff was important, from reminding us of the BMoL’s interest in technomancy of which the Colt (shown in the recap) is the first and best example, along with all THEIR toys, but also the reminder that Crowley once hoarded a Hand of God,  _just in case he’d need it_. I laughed at that fact which watching the first time and didn’t comment which I find a crying shame because I like to pretend I can magically intuit the entire plot of an episode from the recap and it actually IS all in here because all the sappy sentimental details aside it’s about the toys, and about Mary’s decision, and about the motivations behind Crowley’s hoarding habit.

* * *

So, Mary and Ketch. Just from the recap I was commenting on her guilt and what drives her to work with them. Considering the episode has several parts and stuff Mary couldn’t have seen, she is still technically the POV character in the meeting with Ketch telling him what happened - like with Mick’s report in 12x09, it’s got to be biased to just the parts Mary CAN know. We’ve been talking all season and hiatus before it about the BMoL having an incomplete picture of their lives, which seems very important to know. 

Mary defends her decision to work with them later in the episode to Wally, about “we saved a lot of people” and she’s in the usual Winchester rut of trying to repair the world from a mistake she thinks she made, and is vulnerable to that sales pitch that Wally tells her he didn’t trust. The episode comes down to her decision not to hand the Colt back, or even to reveal she has it and USE it on Yellow Eyes 2.0, though the suggestion there’s more of them out there may yet give her her chance to kill a prince of Hell like Dean and now Sam have done.

Sam, incidentally, seems considerably more okay with Mary so maybe that tension really is just that Mary is being weird to him. He tries to talk to her later in the episode after all.

Anyway, considering Cas is now family forever and ever no take backs, I love that she’s also repeating his season 6 mistakes, because it’s STILL the Winchester way, even if it’s Cas’s way. Her loyalty to a secret working arrangement has now nearly killed Cas, and stirred things up in a big way, and so this episode can firmly be filed under “mistake” - I don’t think this episode is Mary’s 6x20 yet, but it’s more like instead of a flashback we’re getting her actions all through the season. Her first Mick meeting was Crowley coming to Cas at the leaf raking moment; now we have her actions as some thing like one of the episodes where they were caught in the angel war crossfire, plus the “i will tear it all down” speech from Cas to Crowley after his minions attacked the Winchesters in 6x20; the confrontation and reveal is still to come.

To her benefit there was a moment it looked like she was going to speak up but she was talked over and didn’t argue her way to confessing. Perhaps that was her watching them rake leaves moment :P Let them be. Handle this myself, etc.

* * *

Those are the same mugs as the diner everyone meets up in, so I guess Mary returned to the “scene of the crime” in a way… It says “Big Kahuna” on the menu, among other things, which is interesting. Mr Ketch has no illusions about being in charge - he’s happily likened himself to an attack dog.

Who exactly is holding his leash? 

* * *

What I LOVE about “tell me a story” is not the 9x18 vibes (now just outright telling us that we give an interpretation back to them, never mind that because the episode is so challenging with timelines and changing perspectives on a scene by adding new information both elsewhere and by showing us additional parts later, meaning you HAVE to construct your own version of the narrative and they know it will change as you watch basically drawing your attention to the challenge of making a story out of the info offered to you much more naturally than Metatron’s fancy literary theory…)

No, it’s that Ketch says this to Mary and she presumably tells him, and that clearly means she thinks in the form of these sort of movies :P

* * *

I like that when Cas gets flirted with he’s baffled and confused and orders the Sunrise Special because Dean called him Sunshine that one time and I guess it’s a pleasing thing for him now. 

Even more ominous with Mary ordering a bloody steak and eggs now - she breaks a few eggs, and of course it gets very bloody. 

In this case Wally is the eggs, along with nearly Cas >.>

* * *

I’m still not over Dick Roman saying “teachable moments” in 7x09 and Dean saying it here about Cas and flirting. Like, not a good association :P

* * *

With hindsight Mary’s texting sort of has no explanation - maybe it WAS random friends. Maybe it was the BMoL. We get a Wally reaction shot immediately after, looking away from Mary and kind of disappointed, because he knows that her sons aren’t in on it. At some point around here I think he asks them casually if they have met the BMoL yet and gets an even more horrifying answer but doesn’t tell them what he knows.

* * *

Not that I trusted this at all the first time through, but it’s even more interesting now when Wally tells us about how he found the case. He has the detail about the demon fishing and when he does it, but he didn’t explain how he found him and staked him out. He mentions the demon signs, which the BMoL may or may not be tracking for themselves, but Sam and Dean seem to have completely given up on (aside from very sporadic mentions, mostly because they just don’t interact with demons this way any more) - He does however throw in a useless tidbit about virgins going missing (”Classic horny demon sign!”) that seems to have no relation to the rest of the episode. Since it seemed they were just going to go in and kill the demon, it doesn’t matter what he makes up, because the tracking is all done so theoretically there would have been no more story to uncover and the lie is safe. But it’s… a random little bad detail now that betrays the lies going on here because it had so much nothing to do with the rest of the story. Will anyone pick up on it? Probably not.

* * *

It also makes the original version of the diner scene very preoccupied with sex in a way that doesn’t match up to the rest of the episode. Betraying the surface layer messing around flirting with Mandy stuff? Who knows.

* * *

Anyway everything is going to be fine (Mary is such a Winchester)

Wally immediately dies because irony, and we see Cas wounded and probably dying, just like, for starters. 

Cas is like “Where’s Sam and Dean!?” and we got to Sam and WALLY. Dean is absent and we know that’s because he ran off to check on Cas and Mary, much later in the episode and like 2 minutes ago their time. But he misses all that drama and returns to help Sam with no explanation. I suspect missing scenes because that one detail left me convinced there would be a Sam or Dean POV on this and we only got Cas and Mary and Crowley, and Sam and Dean just kind of went along with everything. 

In a 6x20 parallel way, it highlights their obliviousness - Cas saw Mary sneaking out the basement although he doesn’t have much more evidence she’s up to something, I think he is given a POV because the fact he gets hurt is so pivotal to the episode and MARY is telling us (Ketch) this, and her decisions and so on shape everything. The episode going from “it will be fine” to Mary hauling hurt Cas is so important because it shows immediately THIS is her mistake, and what it’s really about for her… Though her sons are there, if there’s any member of TFW we’d get more about, it would be Cas. Because this is yet another Cas n Mary episode :P Sam and Dean who?

* * *

I LOVE the opening of Cas’s part with him in his truck listening to an evangelical radio station with a “wtf” face. Also the director knows you need a steady, ethereal side profile from time to time :3

* * *

(I do appreciate all the other directing in this but the perfect shot of Misha’s face is what gets me to talk :P)

* * *

Also the fact Cas kept his truck

“Brothers and sisters, are you worthy?” I feel like the lines on the radio etc that we get are usually important. In this case, Cas is being asked if he’s worthy (”brothers and sisters” is that sort of religious language angels use to talk to each other too, I guess in this case it seems like it’s addressing Cas and it’s not weird for him to be addressed that way?) - anyway I’ve at least already seen comments that Cas sort of realises he’s  _worthy_ of that love and being in the family when he makes his deathbed confession of love to them. His self-worth has been in question a long time and I don’t think he’ll be cured of the issues,  but maybe starting to feel a bit better, especially as they’re all communicating feelings a little more…

* * *

I love the way Dean turns his entire body to face Cas when he joins them. That is an unnecessary amount of attention.

* * *

I still don’t know if Dean thought that Wally and Mary were an item, but he’s juuust on that shade of a poor John parallel that Dean might have thought it. He had some weird looks for him.

* * *

I love that Dean and Mary wear the same boots.

* * *

More “where the fuck is Dean” that we don’t know about yet - we get the very brief montage of them setting up, Sam FINISHING the demon trap, while we know Mary looking through the curtains at Cas and sneaking away which is shown directly before that was when Sam STARTED the trap. Dean apparently was just moving the car but when the episode moved on from the diner and trap setting segment and into the barn segment, I was very frustrated we didn’t get Dean POV because he has a lot of gaps which when you’re trying to figure the episode out for the first time are as mysterious as what Mary’s up to.

* * *

I hate how Cas is like “yes I too have peed at some point in my life” :P I thought we’d had a time skip here too because Cas was outside and then decided to come in, like, apparently without any motivation to do so in defiance of his establishing shot. I just thought the time skip happened between Sam and Dean finishing getting ready and Mary coming out the room, not immediately after looking at Cas but before the rest of the innocuous scene setting actions :P

* * *

Anyway badass demon intro time. Not an all time great entrance like Cain, but definitely great for the mounting tension.

I LOVE the Dean and Mary back to back moment as they prepare for the fight. Even if there’s some fundamental issues here, Winchesters have each other’s backs.

* * *

Sam vs doors - flinching at the doorknob turning. He’s having a flinchy season with doors.

Here, I think I had a long ramble in my notes that must be somewhat reclaimable - I just love the canon that Azazel couldn’t have been finished off with that knife because you can’t have easy answers even when they don’t arrive in time :P Colt or nothing, bitches.

> Oh my god is this episode actually going to explain what Azazel was? (I assume this isn’t actually him) Also I should probably not assume/speculate off the first 10 minutes but hey.
> 
> We’ve been shown this guy walks over demon traps, is immune to demon trap bullets, and has less of a reaction to the demon knife than Abaddon (who was stopped with demon trap bullets) and more of a reaction to it than Cain (who tbh they trapped that one time but for all we know was fucking with Dean and had it all under control re: traps… Dean being the same creature was never actually proven to be able to be trapped in a demon trap since the one time he tried actually escaping one he just walked right over it, and blamed it on feeling a bit better but for all we know he was 100% demon until the end of the cure and there’s no “sort of a bit less demon-y right now”). There’s been incredibly long-standing speculation Azazel was a fallen angel who was demon-ified, especially with the name. I also feel like we’ve mentioned Azazel in passing really recently relating to lore over stuff like Nephilims, as the actual Biblical one is name dropped somewhere or other in lore about that. TBH if they were using wikipedia to get some quick lore about Nephilim in the writers’ room and then stumbled on that, I can see WHY someone might have had a post it note, and now there’s a yellow eyed dude here.
> 
> And Mary is like D:
> 
> -
> 
> See also: what I was saying about Sam confronting some demons about it with Magda. Now they’re literally confronting a demon :P

(If you want to know how bad my original notes are, that’s referring back to the only other comment from them so far I deemed worth repeating, from the RECAP)

* * *

Also can I just mention how much I love that the show has really truly committed to rehashing season 1, by having a Yellow Eyes revival that wasn’t nonsense like 6x01 setting it all up and literally NEVER using the season 1 callbacks properly the rest of the season. We’ve been dealing with it all season (the exploring of things left unsaid from EVERY season) but there’s a promise of 2 living Yellow Eyeses out there and at least 1 of them with a direct interest in the main plot thing of Lucifer’s baby, and Dabb is doing EXACTLY what we hoped he would when he took over (I mean - this is stuff we were hoping from, like, the end of season 11 when we realised who was running the show after Carver buggered off but before we even had Mary back, it was like, welp, things are going to get really fucking meta here all of a sudden) by playing with these elements.

The Yellow Eyes thing technically affected the whole Winchester family, but it’s Mary’s burden and Sam’s trauma, and 12x06 already put them next to each other finding Randy’s body with the whole strapped to the ceiling deal and their dual D: faces on seeing it. If you were gonna build a mytharc around Mary’s return, giving her something to face like this is the best way to do it… I thought it would be Lucifer, because he’s the end result of her actions, but that’s too abstract, I guess… I’m now MUCH more interested in her dealing with these guys and what happens with all this.

* * *

> Anyway I fucking love that the title card noise from season 1 is playing when he shuts the door to be alone with Mary and shows his eyes. I mean. Visceral “been watching this show for 10 years” feelings suddenly on hearing that. Like, I think we know exactly how Mary feels here

* * *

Noted some more timeline fuckery with the order of events in this fight, which makes the amount of time Dean was gone for even more confusing.

Since there was no Dean POV I m just filing it under mild continuity fuckery

* * *

Wally and Cas are stabbed in short succession: I think the important thing here is that this is Mary’s story still, even if we have the Cas POV here, and these are MARY’s mistakes happening together - the broken eggs and bloody steak. Wally dies as lasting collateral damage to her trust in the BMoL, and Cas is there to suffer beautifully in the emotional way of having to deal with immediate family being hurt because of her actions…

* * *

Mary running the guy over is still SO funny.

Also she calls Cas “Cas”!!! Which we were wondering about when she’d drop “Castiel” so she does clearly care about him more and understand him better than before - 12x09 did a lot there. Don’t think she referred to him by name though because when literally anyone says “Castiel” my heart skips a beat because I’m in too deep and I remember these things :P

From what were basically just notes to myself by this point:

> (11:52, just popping back to see what happened last time Mary and Cas were here (4:15))
> 
> We just missed Cas asking about Sam and Dean - skipped a close up of him bleeding everywhere; in this version Mary asks him how bad it is and Cas says he can’t heal himself and then Sam phones while they’re stressing over this, meaning Cas asked about Sam and Dean somewhere in between being dropped on the seat he’s on, and Mary asking about the wound?

I like that in the general version of this Cas asks about Sam and Dean, but in this version Mary’s freaking out about him getting hurt - this section is ABOUT Cas but getting to the barn, it becomes about Mary and her consequences - because we now have a Mary and Sam conversation while Dean tends to Cas in the background (despite this being the “wounded angel” section) and Sam ends it asking "Mom, what the hell did you get us into?“

The blame is put on Mary and Sam doesn’t KNOW how much this is her fault. They think she called them to help Wally, and she’s only incidentally to blame…

* * *

God, the importance of Sam and Mary having that conversation about an adversary with yellow eyes.

Perez definitely seems the most focused on this to me of all the writers, though of course all the new ones and Berens have openly chipped in with this in the MotW, and Buckleming being Buckleming, jut had Mary say she felt bad about it :P

* * *

Anyway, the immediate answer to the subtextual dramatic irony - over to “Mother Mary” and her conversation with Wally about avoiding the blame for this. 

* * *

> "Technically I’m in my 60s” pfft
> 
> At least she’s got a sense of humour about it now :P

* * *

This is all just layered with dramatic irony in that good way where you see it at the time (because we already know Wally dies) but then also gets so much worse because Mary talking about Sam and Dean asking the wrong questions piles it on later when she’s actively hiding from them that she’s got split loyalties - such as the “give it back” moment, they just don’t know to appeal to Mary to do it.

It especially reminds me of Cas’s mindset in 6x20, justifying season 6 actions here and there because Cas was clinging to having done the right thing - the “wrong questions” would be questioning his choices when he felt he didn’t have the time for ethical debates about what he’d signed up for. 

* * *

And then Wally caaasually brings up to Sam and Dean the BMoL, slightly betraying Mary’s confidence because she did say not to say she was WORKING for them but I guess not to ask them in general about the BMoL… He already told Mary he doesn’t trust them and now Dean’s casually saying how they tried to kill his brother, and Wally is like, shit, they set this whole thing up and Sam and Dean have no idea.

* * *

> Things to note: Sam has holy oil in his bag, Dean is absent while Sam is setting up the house despite the fact they were supposedly on this task together, and in a tick we see Sam doing the demon trap he appears to have got the can of paint out for while Dean is already back and loading bullets
> 
> (More Dean being weirdly missing from events)

I mean Sam has an explanation but Dean was basically not here so that Sam could talk to Mary, when you boil it down and have hindsight that there is no Dean part of the story :P

* * *

Oh Sam checking on Mary. *paws at the screen* The last time they saw her she held a gun to her own head, but Sam hasn’t really checked in with her since??? I guess neither of them have. But that void between Sam and Mary highlighted again.

“Since when is life about getting what you want?” - Mary was sold on her deal with Azazel to have the life she wanted. Whoops.

And of course, who knows what Sam was referring to specifically, but her entire current existence is forced on her. She left because she missed Heaven, all Buffy-like. Now she’s hunting like crazy (and teamed up with the wrong people) in an attempt to make the most of it and save as many people as she can…

* * *

I love Ramiel’s collection of various spears.

* * *

Also the BMoL’s tech, no matter how sketchy they are.

I like that the painting seemed like random lore when Mary had it in her info before the hunt, but it was just her advice on how to find the safe. The painting is of the spear in action, but it’s not actually here - just a connection because he owns it I guess…

* * *

And Mary alone to herself for a few minutes to message someone with a British accent while Cas is unconscious. We don’t know that for sure but he definitely was resting his eyes. Whether he was in a fit state to notice Mary texting when Sam and Dean were already on their way…

* * *

“I’ve had worse” “Oh yeah? when?” is probably one of the best exchanges Dean and Cas have ever had, on sheer excellent delivery and reactions.

Dean doesn’t know when. He’s flipping out.

* * *

> Dean refuses to believe Cas will die.
> 
> Dean using a “Sammy” to yank his attention over to help with Cas.
> 
> Those are carefully rationed so the use of the nickname stresses how important this is to Dean
> 
> -
> 
> Surprise Crowley!

Honestly I was happy to see him then just because it broke up the gloomy moment of no one having a clue what to do and assumed he’d help somehow but now it’s like the cavalry arriving or something :P Crowley always knows what to do :D Just sometimes he hates doing it or hates himself for doing it… I mean his minions just tried to kill them, he’s here to chew them out, and ends up saving Cas’s life, out of pure sentimentality.

* * *

I don’t know why they’re surprised Cas knows something like “Ramiel” because it SOUNDS angelly and even if these guys aren’t they sure as hell sound like the sort of thing to be on the average angel’s radar…

* * *

> From his “do you know what you’ve done” I’m guessing this is a Problem Demon(or whatever) Crowley keeps his eye on all the time, but in a “leave weeeell alone” way. Like Cain. Who he only went to poke because he had a Dean who needed a Mark to kill Abaddon, who was not a “leave well alone” problem any more all of a sudden :P During my rewatch notes up through season 9 at the moment, I’ve made several comments since we met him on Crowley collecting kill-anything weapons - Death’s scythe, the Colt for a brief time, a previous attempt to collect the First Blade & having tabs on Cain… The fact he had a Hand of God in a box in storage (shown in the THEN section) - Crowley is weaker than MOST random scary demons like Abaddon, Cain, Azazel, Lilith, Alastair, etc etc etc and assumedly this guy too, but his survival means scooping up the Colt 2 years before anyone needed it, on the off-chance he had to throw some idiots at Lucifer to shoot him. Well, not even Lucifer. No one knew where Abaddon was. What if Cain kicked off? And, I assume, what about this guy? :P Haven’t hit play yet but I assume this is going to be roughly the situation, and another reason Crowley may have been hoarding kill-anything weapons for longer than we’ve known him, since he’s got a pre-dating ever being on the show history of collecting powerful insurance pieces, and the fact being a prominent demon is fucking DANGEROUS is a good reason to do that.
> 
> -
> 
> Heeey we have an explanation of what the fuck Azazel was!! That is not infuriatingly bad because it makes sense with what he was doing any time we saw him on screen! Yay!
> 
> The “Prince of Hell” thing makes me laugh not just because Crowley styles himself King of Hell, playing off this long-dead (or, fucked off to fish peacefully) hierarchy, but next episode Gavin is back apparently? And in 9x21 (which is next in my rewatch and I guess a real fucking priority) he asks if Crowley being the King of Hell makes HIM a prince of hell and Crowley I assume was like “pfft no” although I really, really do not remember and kind of resent being given another reason to go back there even though I was gonna anyway because I have to because I even did Bloodlines like… Aaargh.
> 
> -
> 
> “SIX YEARS AGO”
> 
> (Dabb vs cars the ultimate showdown: what year is this show fucking set any more - we have a range here of like, anything up to 2019)

* * *

I love the detail of the awkward silence after Crowley introduces himself as King of the Crossroads and a cuckoo clock going in the background.

The episode is just really slick in presentation and style and it’s so much fun

* * *

  
“She kills the bad ones fast and the good ones slow” then goes on to talk about how it was only really made to kill Lucifer. Now Cas is dying from it - the “bad” and “good” definitions are intentionally, absurdly simple that a demon, one of Lucifer’s own, is calling him “good” in this context. But linking Cas and Lucifer - both fallen angels in their own way, and Cas now busy dying of a wound meant only for Lucifer.

Can’t tell if more or less pertinent/poignant/some other word I can’t think of but isn’t quite these that Cas has already been possessed by Lucifer :P

* * *

I suppose this implied Crowley took the Colt after 5x10, sneaking around the aftermath of the fight to find out what happened/get his gun back, since that’s the last time we saw it outside of the 1800s… “It’s amazing what some people just leave laying about”

I am convinced there’s a blink and you miss it shot of Dean taking the Colt back after that fight, implying they took it back to Bobby’s, but the show certainly acted like it was over, done and dusted, because they didn’t like it very much for being too easy, Same as Cas gets nerfed.

I suppose if that shot IS in 5x10 Crowley could have just borrowed it back from Bobby, since he DOES visit him immediately after the apocalypse, as we saw in 6x04 (hi Dabb) and this is set somewhere around then too. (Crowley had a busy schedule - he has to go watch Cas watch Dean rake leaves in a minute too)

Course it was Dabb bringing the damn thing back in 6x18, and now there’s clearly a very different story afoot that they think it will work for or at least this is a loose end they felt they had to cover.

So far, it feels like a respectable return, like, if you were gonna have a whole episode to reintroduce an artefact. As I said, with hindsight, the recap at the start is all about that :P

* * *

Honestly the crown of Hell is cursed. Ramiel knows :P Crowley will find out.

> Aha, some belated character fleshing out for Crowley and why he randomly showed up as the King of Hell.
> 
> Why not :P He did seem very well-placed and I’d have always argued except perhaps in season 8, happier as King of the Crossroads. He certainly seemed put upon once season 6 was properly underway, having had the job for a year. It seemed like he just swooped in and took it but that’s ALWAYS been plot convenience that Mark Sheppard is an asset and he was there as the most prominent demon character and they clearly liked writing him
> 
> Anyway, Crowley’s always had some loyalty issues with his minions, and he’s aaalways seemed like he didn’t really want it and I’ve wondered why he was so interested to have it since it makes him so unhappy… Guess here we are. :P
> 
> -
> 
> Also the random demon minion with him seems pretty sceptical about the pick of Crowley
> 
> -
> 
> haha and his random minion nearly got it. Dangit, I would have loved an AU where she had it the whole time. Isn’t she the one they killed earlier as well? Talk about her career going nowhere :<
> 
> -
> 
> I am an over-emotional mess of Dean!girl feelings as Crowley describes the lance as killing everything it touches, and that Michael made it, and it seems like the ultimate kill-everything weapon, that Dean, of course, epitomises on the show - in the recap we saw him with the Colt and First Blade. He’s BEEN Death. He’s made himself into a weapon to take out Eve and Abaddon and nearly Amara… (I’m watching season 7 so remembering him making the holy weapon to kill Dick)
> 
> And now Cas has been hurt by this and it’s spreading its black cracks through him and
> 
> *wibbles and clutches a blanket around me*
> 
> Also Dean being reminded of Michael, who is mentioned like… never. I can’t even remember if Dean was in the room when Lucifer brought him up in the middle of season 11, but aside from that he hasn’t been mentioned since season 5
> 
> And he was the most tragic Dean parallel, the one bound to duty, even so far as to kill his brother (and apparently wanted him to suffer while he died if this is anything to go by >.>)

* * *

I LOVE Crowley having his “oh shit” moment when he realises how Cas is going to die. He really is fond of TFW. Plus been in a love triangle with Cas enough times.

if I love all caps that, I  **LOVE**  Dean having his “Michael?!” moment

\- Crowley having an “oh shit I care” moment and Dean being forcibly reminded of an angel he must loathe in an intensely personal way… Yeah, that’s all backwards from expectations when you apply the absurd “good” and “bad” expectations. The show has been in the grey area of these things for so long… We don’t even think about it any more :P

* * *

Anyway, Dean melting down about Cas dying and yelling at Crowley about how they don’t  have time :’) Once more, Crowley defies expectations. It LOOKS like he fucks off because he doesn’t care but he’s gone to confront Ramiel.

Likewise, in 12x09 he sounded oooh so unhelpful to Cas about saving Sam and Dean, but the implication in his words was he’d already looked and made an investigation before Cas ever came to him for help…

* * *

Crowley pulls through :) He also says he has no friends - well, they don’t seem to value him as one, but… They’re friends in a way. 

“Three humans with one good liver between them” Well, we know Dean’s is not up to scratch, but has Sam really drunk enough over the years for that to apply to him too? Or is Mary actually a hard drinker… The idea of Mary as cleanly, newly resurrected suggests he means she has the good one. The bucking of all expectations about Mary suggests Sam’s clean-living way with all that salad “like eating self-righteousness” have helped preserve his liver a little and Mary’s hitting the hard liquor in her ongoing parallels to Dean >.>

* * *

Crowley can really take flying through the wall like a champ

Did we even see him again until the end of the episode? I literally do not remember him getting up

[immediate editor’s note after reaching the end of that sentence: Lizzy. Lizzy. Go get some fucking cold medicine.]

* * *

I also remembered to feed the fish while I was downstairs. You might be guessing this is why my first run through the episode was unpostable.

You would be right >.>

* * *

9:12PM, whatever day this is, whatever the fuck the year is:

“Crowley’s right.” - Castiel Winchester

shame he’s unconscious over there, that would have been the best moment of HIS life

* * *

Next up: fan service for everyone else who isn’t Crowley, now we’ve thrown him a bone :P

* * *

I can’t believe Cas said I love you and then had to clarify I love ALL of you like who was he excluding??? Dean because they had another dumb couple fight about Mandy off-screen somewhere and hadn’t had a chance to make up/out yet since? I mean, probably?

Logically it would be because of Mary. Cas looked at her to say they were family and then dropped his gaze to say “I love you” though we can assume it’s meant to be that he’s addressing the room before you dive in there with “he’s in love with humanity” and “a more profound bond” comments, never mind the suggestiveness of having Cas look up and the reaction shot first be Dean. But right then and there, Cas needs to clarify that he considers ALL of them his family and that he loves ALL of them, and we could say “well duh” since, well, 6x20 to be  _absolutely_  sure Cas loved them (and Bobby) and considered them family. He did NOT have the words for it back then or the room to allow it in his life.

In a way, adding Mary in is expanding it from “Sam and Dean” to “humanity” as, I mean, a sort of abstract layer above hard won feelings, though as he’s had a few weeks to bond with Mary and he loves her as a Winchester and all he’s ever known about her, and she’s fought for him in ways more meaningful than, well, fighting. Like handling those vampires for him. Trying to comfort him before… Buuut she’s still working her way in as someone hypothetically to be loved. I doubt Cas will turn on her when the betrayal comes out, even despite all this, though he’ll have a right to be hurt, something tells me he’d still be willing to die for her anyway, as all the Winchesters are with each other no matter how pissed off they are. 

BUT on a personal level, they don’t know each other so well, so this is more that Cas is now showing the capacity to love random humans and consider them family and allow them in, and feel he can be allowed in with them. The whole blood ties thing, where someone is family because of who they are, not what they’ve done. Cas is a Winchester because the Winchester family means so much to him, all of them, not just the ones he’s always known and fought for/with. it’s showing a change in the way he loves, to more human definitions. The clarification that he loves them all is important because he’s taking a place in the family and he needs an all-encompassing love on top of the very specific bonds he makes. Like, yeah he’s married to Dean, but that’s not the end or even now the beginning of where and why he loves the Winchesters.

Anyway tl;dr if I wasn’t high as a kite from all the cold medication I would be sobbing so much about where Cas has reached in his belonging arc.

…

Also he had to clarify he was addressing the room meaning he is aware there’s a personal, specific love that could have been addressed too but he went with the family thing.

* * *

ALSO we had to see Cas clarifying which means we’re totally free to wonder/assume about that specific love he WASN’T addressing after all

* * *

God I love that this all happened on a plaid couch

* * *

And that Dean made Cas cry

* * *

Fucking finally. It’s been forever.

I remember how everyone was so annoyed he wasn’t allowed in 9x23

* * *

This time Dean got to see

* * *

> I love the aesthetic but does holy fire actually work? The line between top tier demon and angel is really flimsy.
> 
> I suppose it’s pretty nasty stuff regardless.

/insert gif of Sam holy-fire-bombing Abaddon

* * *

I think they just wanted to mimic 6x20 for obvious reasons. Thinking of which, ultimatum time!

* * *

Mary is barely shown but stands fast. This is in this moment very Cas in the MIDDLE of season 6, convinced they’re doing the right thing, or at least holding to their choice so much they can’t be swayed right now. I think in a little bit Mary seems to change her mind a bit.

Anyway she makes a choice to fight rather than reveal herself, as I guess there’s still hope while they can fight.

It’s probably worth comparing it (and I say this as an ardent Mary fan) to Crowley deciding to snap the spear to save Cas despite the leverage he might have gained with it. I’m not saying Mary put the Colt ahead of Cas as they still had a flimsy plan and hopes for a cure (as they hadn’t bested him in a fight yet and who knows, maybe they could have beat something out of him), but she chooses not to either shoot Ramiel immediately, or to hand the gun back and beg, one of which instantly removes any chance he might have had a cure, the other buys them a lot more time, but reveals herself. Fighting has a middle ground >.> She’s not yet reached a point like Cas even in 6x17, where Atropos challenges him and he finds his position untenable. Had things escalated here differently, she might have hit that point sooner.

* * *

Dean fighting against Michael’s lance with a freakin shovel is amazing

Like, talk about a season 5 metaphor in one tiny clip

* * *

blam he’s dead

He was a really great villain for like, stage presence and all, but really not very deep, so *shrugs*

He was just here to facilitate all the interpersonal drama between main characters :P

* * *

You could say that about about any villain I guess, but the really good ones capture your imagination and actually make you dislike them >.> I was spitting at the screen in 7x11 when Krissy’s dad showed up looking like Ishim, for example :P

* * *

I think even Crowley has a “why did I just do that” moment

while unconscious, he heard “Crowley is right” coming out of Cas’s mouth

* * *

Okay Crowley buggered off before they could say thank you - that disappearing thing goes both ways. You might leave meaning to save them and they think you hate them, but if you leave after saving them without waiting around YOU think they hate you.

Cas is genuinely pissed Crowley saved him again because 10x03 could be written off as a fluke but now Cas actually has to get him a fucking Christmas card every year 

Or at least that’s how I read his face.

* * *

Cas is reborn off the Winchester Plaid Sofa as a true member of the family

* * *

Like childbirth, the process was revolting.

* * *

But now they’re holding hands and MARY is off to the side.

* * *

I genuinely think after this episode that Cas puts on the gruff voice too. Like, canonically Dean does it, but.

I think Cas over-adjusted from the screeching when trying to talk on a human register for the first time in 100 years and has been too embarrassed to use Jimmy’s normal voice since.

* * *

Mary aaalmost confesses, but does not fight her own corner when she had the chance. Nearly got off the bad decision train!

In her defence, she’s the only person in the room who wasn’t there for 6x20

* * *

Is this the last time we see Dean and Cas this episode? I think they just went back and locked themselves in Dean’s bedroom for like, a week.

* * *

Mr Ketch having no fucking clue how weird the world is out there is brilliant. I’d genuinely believe he didn’t account for Prince of Hell as a potential target. I feel things the BMoL miss are too big and powerful for them to find in the first place. there’s stuff at home they have noooo idea about.

12x09 and this episode, we have Wally paralleled against him for surprise about taking on Lucifer. WALLY.

Now he’s got to listen to Mary being like “just another thursday”

* * *

Ketch is wearing Crowley-ish clothes, Mary is wearing Cas colours.

She still has a heart, although again the 6x20 parallels about threatening to burn it all down, but not actually quitting yet. Still clearly relying on this more than her sense that something is really wrong here.

* * *

Aw, and she calls Cas “one of her boys” - I guess she all the declarations about family have made her realise at least that Cas should absolutely be treated as part of the innermost family, if her immediate introduction didn’t clue her in that this was someone so important to Dean he was like family.

laughing because she’s all momma bear to Cas apparently now, and so that kills any chance of them getting together dead, I hope (I deal with this IRL - watching with casual viewers is a fun adventure. Not my mum, before you wonder :P)

* * *

“Is that a threat?” 

Crowley as usual, is right. Everyone underestimates the Winchesters SO much. Did you not just hear the story she told you? About taking down a Prince of Hell that nearly killed their Angel BFF who was then saved by the quick thinking of their ~BFF~ the King of Hell?

* * *

That was not a sincere apology.

* * *

I probably should have been more shocked when I first watched this but I was so out of it and had been talking about the Colt and the scavenger hunt to find it and Crowley’s interest in it and even WHY he needed it SO MUCH through this episode it was just like, yeah, okay, already accepted that was happening, somewhere down in the back of my mind :P

Like, I had 0 questions about any of this.

I was also asleep on my feet but whatever :P

* * *

Is Lucifer singing about 6x18

* * *

“Do you really think they care about you?”

Now Castiel Winchester is formally a member of the family, we move onto the next un loved scrub with no sense of belonging

conveniently revisiting that whole thing with his son next

I really can’t believe how much I want to watch 9x21 since this episode.

* * *

Also Lucifer is still around. Surpriiiise.

* * *

Thank god I finally made it to the end :P


	13. 12x13

I’m posting this but you can pretty much watch my soul depart my body while reading so idk how entertaining it is to read because I got bored, not angry :P

Expectations? Well apparently the subplot is Dagon, who has been apparently by IMDB last time I checked cast as an asian actress, so she’s going to die and that’s going to be enraging (and it’s Buckleming so she’ll probably die of stupid, in a weird ass way) and she’s hanging with Kelly and Lucifer’s baby so THAT’s going to be a disaster, so the subplot is already making my brain itch.

The main plot, on the other hand, I am ready to mock gleefully whichever way it comes and expect better than average Buckleming-ing because it’s the MacLeods and they like them and put in extra effort. It’s going to be like the true Dabb vs cars test - can he wrangle Buckleming to fix the plot hole that’s existed basically the entire time I’ve been in fandom or will it remain hilariously open despite all this revisiting of the past and fixing, like, everything, that’s been going on… Are they a law unto themselves or can they fall in line and deliver one of these Dabb-era canon reworkings that address what the fans want to see (aka, no stupid plotholes)? The plothole is SO egrarious they aaalmost pointed it out themselves in 9x21, commenting about how it was bad to keep Gavin from his proper death, but we have never seen COSMIC CONSEQUENCES from it, which are sort of a thing right now…

Though 9x21 has a whole little scene mocking fans, so idk how Buckleming feel but being nice to us is probably their last priority these days and they really do not fit in with all the other writers who are making love to the show :P

-

Recappy of 9x21 which I watched, like, the day before yesterday, so we’re good. I do wonder if Sam and Dean not knowing the exposition of who Gavin is and what happened to him is the plothole already erasing their memories of 6x04.

Like, Crowley has to explain because even HE doesn’t remember that incident, he just knows this about Gavin’s ship??

Or will the recappy carry on with 6x04…

The good news is we get Sam delivering the line about Coooosmic Consequeeences again IN the recap. This automatically improves my mood.

Nah, on to “What the hell is a prince of hell” exposition without showing Gavin asking Crowley if he was one and Crowley cheekily handing him the title before regretting it and telling him not to ever mention it again, because one or the other of the 3 remaining Princes of Hell may have come for him :P

Poor Cas delivering clearly understandable exposition while bleeding into the Plaid Sofa - if the Princes keep being a thing then we’re gonna see that a lot.

Oh thank fuck for Davy Perez and his clearly understandable one line exposition - Ramiel also mentioned the bun in the oven and his sister Dagon in one sentence and spared us clumsy Buckleming recapping of cobbling together a whole montage about this from various hints in the episode.

Listen I’ve done my rewatch up to where I joined in with fandom so I have now survived the recap of every single Buckleming episode while wryly commenting on it or watching fandom snark about it, and that’s probably one of their best because it’s so concise I would not have credited them

-

*random generic ghost death after an incredbly long time watching this lady’s bedtime routine* After 12 seasons I’m pretty numb to these deaths, which makes all the suspense kind of time wasting unless it’s really well done or contains really obvious hints about the plot - ah well, it wasn’t offensive and minimally gross on this show’s scale, so :P

-

Can’t believe Dean doesn’t sign off with “thanks babe” when talking to Cas. It would be so easy I’m actually confused when it doesn’t happen.

He’s out of focus but is he wearing a brand new purple shirt? Also have we seen Jensen wearing this at cons? The colour scheme is vaguely familiar but I may just be getting used to Dean wearing purple. Sam keeps swinging between blue and red (they’re in the same scheme as last episode, purple and blue, here) and red and blue are the conflict colours - Dean’s plaid has been suggesting unification and resolution especially given the colours he wore to talk God and Amara out of it. Purple is the natural extension of that where everything’s mixed… or it’s totally other symbolism of purple, but I like contrasting him and Sam, and Sam HAS been wearing red and blue at random, seeming a lot more scattered. And he’s not talking to Mary.

Anyway the pattern of the plaid looks weirdly flat and 2-tone to me which is probably a commentary on the writing skills of the duo :P

-

Mary and Ketch are in this episode. It’s starting to seem really cluttered but hey I guess they’re busy working on something? Could be a random lead in to next episode.

Could be classic Buckleming Clutter.

-

I should stop judging but I would be worried about fitting in a ghost hunt and Crowley, Rowena and Gavin chatting, never mind throwing in a side plot, never mind not just doing basic exposition about what Kelly’s up to but making it complicated with another set of main characters >.>

I do like seeing Mary though so

-

Poor Cas being the only one not in the episode

-

Yeah Mary’s wearing red and blue striped plaid. Her ring is tucked into her shirt, and she’s having fun killing monsters and testing the BMoL’s toys with Ketch, who has been a John parallel at the very least for his completely uncompromising approach to monsters. Now it seems he’s training her up, testing her to kill monsters (which in this underground carpark vibe place but a ton of dead monsters around her and the implication it’s training, makes me think of 8x17 and Cas being trained to kill Dean - is Mary being made to harden up against monsters even more - including family like Cas.

-

I’m sure this will go very well for her.

-

We cut to this because Dean mentioned how maybe Mary would want to work with them. He says they haven’t seen her in a while, suggesting that a great deal of time has passed since 12x12 IF that was the last time they saw each other.

(I guess we have a huuuge fan fic gap now so Dean n Cas have probably been together for a few weeks at least)

I suppose all these time skips this part of the season are because there’s a baby situation going on and they want to escalate it…

-

I almost commented on Ketch’s suit but realised I was about to compare it to Joan Watson because I did watch Elementary at some undisclosed point during these notes so far :P

-

His stop watch thing seems like a gimmick playing off last episode though. Mary and timing - she refused to give up the colt while Ramiel had a stopwatch countdown. Now Ketch is timing her. She feels she’s on borrowed time…

I’m sure this will go well for her.

-

Blatant Dean reference is blatant when Mary claims she’s hanging out watching pay per view and using the magic fingers.   
Filed under: … do Buckleming realise how suggestive that was always meant to sound when Dean said it? Why is Mary telling Dean this. Sam always looks horrified when he catches Dean using magic fingers. THE GIFS OF HIM DOING IT.

Oh well. Buckleming.

-

And then Mary says she’s still resting up from the Ramiel thing. Honestly, my BFF might be shipping Mary and Cas to my despair but think about Sam and Dean - their mom and BFF are constantly not around and complaining about no leads on the case, just, like, resting up…

“You’re an excellent liar, Mary” It is a family thing.

Has Ketch REALLY, REALLY never been told, put 2 and 2 together or otherwise had it made clear to him that Sam and Dean don’t know Mary is working with them? Sure Sam and Dean saw them help in 12x09 but there’s something different between calling for help and accepting the proposal and they KNOW they’d be suspicious to work with them after Toni

(Poor Toni, character assassinated in 2 episodes by Buckleming, who are now explaining her away as a rogue operative because they made her go past a point of no return and now she’s been ditched from the story… Imagine if that happened happened and she was still allowed to be around without the very well-justified reason she’s now the face of the BMoL torturing Sam and Dean and can’t be allowed near them. And we thought from 12x01 she had a ton of potential to be interesting and nuanced and all… Argh)

Anyway this makes it very clear they’re untrustworthy to work with because of the way they have to be all unsubtle about Ketch thinking that Toni went too far when SHE thinks HE’s the psycho.

-

“So… drink?” Oh, they’re dating now I guess

-

Huh, Crowley. Randomly. Whyyy.

I mean, why didn’t they give him an episode to be all weird and sketchy about having Lucifer in his basement while dealing with his family nonsense without SHOWING him having Lucifer in his basement? 12x12 was slick but obviously did not have time to focus on that… Following it with what should be a Crowley-related fluff family episode about Gavin being useless and dorky (I assume. I watched 9x21 too recently and I’m helplessly attached to the doofus again) and Crowley, well, we could have shown him, like Mary being sketchy about the BMoL or Cas in season 6 being sketchy about working with Crowley, just kind of… itchy about time and what he can do and generally having a load of tells something’s up… Keep Lucifer out of the episode entirely and focus on Crowley’s emotional state to sort of retroactively add the emotional stuff that had to be left out for time and drama last time.

Like, 12x12 was so full on, you need a REST episode after which you think Gavin’s return would be perfect MacLeod fluff, and we keep Lucifer away

But nah he’s here so suddenly we have to see him and see Crowley interacting with him, and all that subtle menace and whatever from the end of 12x12 evaporates because we’re just leaping right in. We shouldn’t have seen Crowley until whatever brings him to hang out with the rest of the MacLeods later in the episode (as I’m pretty sure we saw them doing in a promo)

Ugh. :P

-

Maybe I’m just being picky but I did NOT want to see Lucifer again immediately, and Crowley keeping that secret, and sure WE know he has Lucifer in his basement but no one else does so now we know Crowley’s secret, tell it like he has one! Don’t show us more!! LESS IS MORE

-

Also whenever Crowley lectures Lucifer it just reeks of hubris like this is going to blow up in Crowley’s face and now it feels like it’s going to Buckleming up in his face instead of the more subtle way it could have gone.

Since they’re now explaining how Crowley stole a Lucifer for himself.

Maybe Rowena knows he has him but in that case you think they’d use 12x11 to hint there’s more Dean doesn’t remember or shouldn’t remember, OR have Rowena tease him on screen that she knows stuff he’d die to know if only he knew he had to know it :P

-

Oh, nope, he just sabotaged it somehow. Even Rowena doesn’t know.

-

I know I have a lot of headaches pretty much permanently but there’s one that shows up in a little line just above my eye that I’m sure is tuned only to the frequency of Buckleming episodes and only shows up when I watch one.

I’m burning a candle to ward off evil spirits.

-

Didn’t work

Just keysmashed at Mittens and went to go get another cup of tea. Buckleming… Pls. we’re 5 minutes into the episode.

I mean in the interest of explaining random things that fans might complain about, explaining why Lucifer is Nick again is… I suppose… an effort…

I SUPPOSE it interests Crowley to collect everything remotely useful connected to Lucifer.

His diary for the week after Swan Song is packed.

I mean we always knew he was snooping around doing various behind the scenes things, but aside from anything else that’s too much ass-pulling by saying Crowley did this Crowley did that 6-7 years ago in a row.

Not sure I can look directly at the rest of anything else that happened in the last minute of screen time :P

-

Lucifer snarks about how stupid this all is. Including also pointing out something that was bugging me that I wasn’t going to mention, that Crowley isn’t even keeping Lucifer down in Hell where he can be SOMEWHAT contained, but he’s got him surface level in his usual dingy rooms.

That comment is just inserting an eye roll :P

-

Dean is suspicious about Mary’s motives for being busy, while Sam is eager to explain it away, which I’m not even sure is flipping their positions about it or not, because Dean has been grumpy about Mary not wanting to hang out with them, but Sam was explaining THAT away too, so he mostly seems to be reacting to what Dean says in defence of Mary, which I guess may be making him less critical of her actions as he’s getting to them through the filter of Dean complaining about her staying away or being weird. But of the 2 of them (while Cas has a few more reasons to be suspicious than her sons as of 12x12) Sam has more reason to seem suspicious of her because he was the one asking Mary how she was and asking Mary what SHE got them into last time.

-

Maybe they’re both sort of suspicious but beither wants to commit.

-

Oh god we don’t have to watch a guy die while he’s peeing do we?

-

oh good >.> He’s just going to die randomly in this creepy bathroom

Does he have no preservation instinct

-

Did Sam just say something about ADHD ghosts? Or was it something else and my hearing is messed up? It honestly barely makes sense in context because he was talking about how there’s just a ton of haunted stuff at museums but obviously most of them don’t seem to be aggressively haunted like this. (And I think it’s a nice detail to assume that there’s a lot of potential ghost activity at museums given they’re ancient artefact-collecting places and those are the exact sort of things that might have a spirit attached.

maybe he said ancient ghosts.

Maybe I will assume he did even if it turns out to be “ADHD” when someone finds the captions for it because that makes more sense >.>

-

*Dean messes with some priceless artefact weapons and we cringe as he drops them and wonder if this is a metaphor for Buckleming handling canon*

-

Okay one small good thing: Dean remembers the detail about Gavin’s ship.

Whether this is because Crowley told them or Bobby told them, I have no fucking clue but 6x04 only exists if Gavin is slam dunked back into his watery grave, so. Probably Crowley.

Anyway yay Dean’s photographic memory.

-

I actually had to go check with Mittens and demand spoilers if this ever gets addressed and fucking hell Crowley thinks the Winchesters actually killed the Nephilim already what the fuck what the fuck WHAT THE FUCK

-

Fortunately on that note it’s dinner time and I’m putting 7x20 on.

-

Oh my god Crowley thinks the Winchesters killed the Nephilim??? THEY WERE ARRESTED MOMENTS LATER

HOW DO YOU FUCK UP SO BADLY YOU PUT PLOTHOLES IN YOUR OWN WRITING FROM LITERALLY THE LAST TIME YOU WROTE FOR THIS SHOW?

Does he think Cas did it??

he maaagically knows EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAPPENS EVER INCLUDING ANY PLOTHOLE FROM 10 YEARS AGO THEY WANT TO FILL

HOW

-

Why did Crowley have this conversation in the same room as Lucifer and not even try to hide what he was talking about from him?

unrelated side note: why did Crowley think Sam and Dean killed the baby?

-

Why did Lucifer say “Oh my dad” now the entire fandom has to stop making that joke ironically

-

maybe if I don’t comment on this plotline at all it doesn’t happen

-

Anyway! Sam and Dean stay at the museum overnight for some reason. Guess they really like the movies. Anyway they smuggled a Rowena in  with them. I should probably just stop asking questions at this point.

-

Sam has also decided to stop wearing his jacket and is distractingly beefy and this is not coming lightly from me, a person who has never really objectified Sam ever except for maybe a little in season 7 when he has that hair and sideburns combo

I clearly need something to distract me here :P

-

Also the last scene involved a lingering close up of a lady’s chest. In a coat, but still. Dodgy camerawork to accompany everything else.

-

*Sam casually manhandles Rowena and pfft I don’t wanna ship it but yikes it’s a messed up brilliant ship for Sam*

Dean has already kind of decided Rowena is OK, but Sam still has some serious issues and is also apparently grabby with her and well, 10x19 is still a thing, and… just gimme witch Sam already

-

Oh yep there’s Dagon. Now don’t die. Already killed the angel in the black vessel, so this is all going well >.>

Blah blah usual line about demons being more sympathetic than angels and Lucifer is just misunderstood. Dagon’s pretty cool but she is just reciting pretty much word for word other lines about Lucifer or angels or demons that other characters have already said in more dramatic and weighty episodes.

She does seem more sympathetic about the whole Lucifer’s baby thing than anyone else so far.

Also how did random angels track Kelly when Cas couldn’t

Also how did Dagon track her etc

The wide shot reveals the absolutely standard boots for female characters on TV which I started noticing and getting bemused about in Person of Interest and then I realised badasses like Parker wore them in Leverage, and now I can’t stop seeing the everywhere on Action Female Characters I guess because there’s a certain amount of high heel where you can kick butt and still run around. They still seem really unpractical compared to wearing non-heeled shoes but I suppose they’re the limit for actresses who have to wear them all day. Eh.

Anyway Dagon seems nice and they have the same taste in boots so I guess they can be BFFs now.

-

Oh my god we’re past the midway point of the episode and finally we get to the promo scene which seemed like it had been at the start of the episode.

Nice to see this is getting the appropriate amount of emotional weight.

At least Dean’s wearing his Cas plaid/plaid that looks like the sofa/TFW plaid

Sam is back in red.

-

GAVIIIIIIIN

-

I like how they said Crowley was sick to get him here… Crowley is kinda fucked over but not in that way.

Also what a gullible cookie to believe Crowley might get sick.

he doesn’t know aaanything

-

“That’s my ship!”  
“should’ve been”

YEAH GAVIN GET ON THAT SHIP

-

He’s so sweet. “Oooh! There’s Mr MacCallum(?)’s hook! Had no hand, ye see.”

I feel weirdly proud of him

-

Oh wow I’m Rowena in this scene

-

Boooooring he had a girlfriend

-

I mean I still love and support him but I am disappointed because 9x21 had that ambiguous guy who seemed to feel right at home in Gavin’s one-bed room and assumed they were hooking up with Abaddon

oh well maybe Gavin thought he was single again what with the going to America thing/things had been complicated because of this guy and they were going to America together and Gavin retroactively was already feeling reeeeeally guilty about it before this all came back to - heh - haunt him. Maybe that’s why he thought he was going to Hell - he was fucking off to America with his boyfriend after dumping Fiona because he was worried to take her with him for justifiable reasons about ship safety.

-

SNOW

-

I think there was some earlier in the dark but it was boring and dark

-

Also hi I never see snow :P

-

Mr Ketch still pestering Mary for a drink. He’s really into her. Goes and brings up her kids though  
“It might be best if you were to… disengage from them, for a bit.” - dude, that’s all she’s done all season

Oh look and her ring’s back out in plain sight. (She’s also wearing a grey plaid - totally drained of colour - “nothing comes before my family”

Oh he’s REALLY hitting on her now, telling her she’s the best hunter he’s ever seen and she might play at being mummy, but blah blah blatant Mark of Cain Dean parallels about blade in her hand blood in the air that’s the real you

“The best you”

And yeah all that same paralleling about how it scares her to be a killer etc that Dean goes through

As well as the “you play at - ” phrasing that was so horrible levelled at Cas in 9x22 about playing at being one of the angels.

-

This random museum lady has a ring on her necklace. She hasn’t really done enough to be a Mary mirror?

Maybe things will change. At least for now she’s just misplaced part of her exhibit because ghosts :P

-

Pretty sure we saw the ghost go after the white lady but honestly knowing this show I’m kind of worried for her friend

Welp it’s still chasing her

Ooh yay Winchesters saved her

-

No time for character development. Too much going on. Gavin is already confronting his dead girlfriend

-

I guess this is how Gavin gets talked to go on the ship, so he can protect her >.>

-

They’re blatantly just saying they can’t burn the locket to justify sending Gavin back

I didn’t watch 7x19 because I didn’t want to put myself through it, but it does include a ghost having both bones and an item he’s connected to aside from that he uses to move around, so I guess it’s pre-existing Buckleming canon and I’m glad I remembered that without havig to relive the episode

-

“You don’t intend to tamper with the flow of time, do ye?” Do they hear the dialogue they write? :P Gavin… literally… is here… tampering with the flow of time… Sam and Dean are just sticking up for the exact thing they’ve always said about putting Gavin back where Abaddon found him.

-

I guess Rowena is protesting because she likes him, but still… She might have found a better way to say it

-

Awww no Gavin is alone someone please give him a hug

Well Rowena did earlier

more hugs for Gavin… at this point all I want out of the episode. I’m still watching FOR Gavin

-

Hey Crowley. Popping up out of the blue with no explanation to defend Gavin some more.

-

This is kind of anvil heavy about someone from the past deciding to go back because they don’t fit in and there are loved ones back there which is all horribly grim Mary-related stuff >.>

-

Though she doesn’t have a “past” to return to, just Heaven, and we’ve had periodic opportunities for her to go back throughout the season so idk if it’s maintaining the threat until the last minute like the way Dean suffered in season 11 with the temptation of Amara/the Empty that she represented, or just foreshadowing. Outside of Buckleming episodes I feel Dabb era is kind of more nuanced, but we’ll see…

-

*stares at the emotional beats in this scene some more* honestly that could have been worse. Crowley was probably way too over-emotional about it considering he resented that he didn’t want Gavin to die in 9x21… Not sure that making him cry was particularly kind to him although maybe he’s learned to stop hissing in horror at feelings and never really got better, just manages it more… Anyway, his attachment to Gavin is completely hypothetical since he’s ditched him in the future without a glance back except for sulking about feelings some more. Idk maybe he’s been keeping a better eye on him than he has on with Winchesters or he’d fuckin’ know that they were still desperately looking for Kelly.

I suppose Cas has been shouldering that one more than the Winchesters, and he’d not chat to Crowley about it all.

Hrm.

Anyway, trite emotional scene and then they take Gavin off and just leave Rowena? Even Baby looks embarassed to be in this episode. Rowena didn’t even come to see Gavin off??

-

I’m glad their weird Latin spellbook helpfully has just the ingredients of the spell helpfully also listed in English just in case you were curious what they were/didn’t remember them from last time

-

Eehehe the jar of angel feathers

-

Henry Winchester nostalgia

“and Abaddon” I’m amazed the sad music didn’t record scratch

-

Also they’re not even using the door.

-

“Oh this is a tough one” Aw Dean don’t get too over emotional :S

-

*Sam notices a fly or something in the background while Dean looks all sappy about a love story*

Ugh I’ll let Gavin have that. It makes no sense whatsoever how she appeared like that but okay :P They wanted to show us that I guess instead of just zapping Gavin back. Over-tell everything!!

-

Anyway I guess “Dabb vs cars” is now to be tagged with a strong sense of pride :P

Although also some disappointment he still has to deal with Buckleming

-

Also so this episode is still going on

-

They rewrote history

-

MARY

-

She brought food!

-

Terrifyingly coded food because Mom Beer and the betrayal burgers which date back to Cas in season 6

Dean is dramatic

-

Also they’ve changed clothes so this may be up to 3 months later

-

Oh dear, I think she’s about to tell them she’s hooked up with Mr Ketch in a Buckleming episode

-

You know my terror of them fucking this up is actually making it seem like this conversation is going better than it could have. I’ve only been annoyed with like two details of charactersation/silly dialogue choices so far :P

Dean’s just done the despairing blink realising that family is waaaaaay more complicated than just saying they’re family

-

Which he already knew but he has to go through it with Mary because this has been about tearing down all his notions about her and it doesn’t work unless he’s at least a LITTLE bit betrayed by her.

-

Rowena and Crowley… okay that wasn’t the end of the episode.

Yay Rowena I guess :P I can’t believe anyone still remembered 10x23 - we were sort of mostly pretending it didn’t happen. (Also blaming Crowley for everything, not Sam even though he’s the one who started it) - but Rowena remembered >.> And she rights the wrongs done against her. Always. 

-

*random spooky end*


	14. 12x14

this show normally never makes me cry except that 1 episode in season 7, but god dammit Berens got me TWICE I’m disowning him

-

Expectations - it’s the 14th episode of the season. (This isn’t snark, have you ever gone back and looked at the 14th episode of the season since, say, oh, season 9? Talk about a winning streak you don’t want to break :P)

-

I woke up with a migraine which is getting worse after being up for like… half an hour… so I’m just launching straight into watching it before today is totally ruined.

-

At this point from the recap I genuinely can’t tell if there’s a meta point to make about Dean as a killer and vampires, or you can’t recap it without implying it because vampires are just that tied to Dean’s identity as a hunter/killer

\- or, well, that arc that Buckleming anvil’d Mary onto last episode where Ketch told her SHE was a killer. 

For what it’s worth, they picked 1x20 and 6x05/6x07 to use the most of instead of the sympathetic vamps from later. NOT any of the Gordon stuff visibly on screen. Missed the boat on using “see you next season” in the recap. Anyway, lots of reminders of vampires as a monster; the Twilight knock off vampires, the alpha vamp because duh but in his season 6, not 7, iteration, and of course mixed with Dean’s reaction to vampires, him saying it gets funnier every time, and reminders of the time Dean WAS a vampire, to make it Dean-focused.

-

I guess Ketch using the rocket launcher was so expensive they’re always gonna show it and you know what if every episode for the rest of the season starts with Cas staring down that explosion I’m all for it. Anyway, reminder that they blast vampires with radiation, which I’m sure won’t cause any problems this episode, and a recap of why we don’t trust them.

-

Season 1 Colt recapping - it’s kind of terrifying to see tiny season 1 Sam n Dean on screen when you’re not prepared for it at this point. It’s like looking at their own children or something. John continues not existing in the narrative except for a faceless appearance of his arm handing the Colt to Dean. It’s significant that vampires were the first reason to use the Colt, that John then gave it to Dean the episode after and passed on the revenge arc to him, and that Dean then used it to fulfil it. We also see Dean pointing it AT “John” in 1x22 and Sam failing to shoot Azazel in 1x21, and MARY’S repeat of of the “There’s only 5 things in creation it can’t kill” which blurs her, Samuel and Lucifer nicely >.>

Then of course the horror of 1x01 on screen (AAAH SMOLLEST WINCHESTERS) “You think Mom would have wanted this for us?” Sam asks, cut immediately to Mary like “Nothing comes before my family” before the only 3 lines you need from 12x13 about their argument re: Sam and Dean being a little suspicious of her and then Mary being like “hi you need to be a lot susicious of me”.

-

The Margikugel beer is in pride of place in this shot

“Just hear me out.” “Wow… Just, wow.” Oh no, there Dean goes, freezing her out like he said they had in the promo from slightly later in the episode >.>

This angle on the war room table always makes it look like a coffin.

Mary makes some defences that she’s aware that the BMoL kinda suck and Sam cuts into that with “When.” Mary answers with exactly what he wanted to hear which was “exactly how much has this already screwed us over” so she phrases her answer by measuring time with common era as “the lake house” which I’m pretty sure was that time travel romance with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves.

Mmmokay Dean uses “Cas almost died” against Mary and I’ve decided that’s something I really hoped would happen but now I heard it it just feels terrible :P Like, it’s weighing their stock against each other and Cas obviously outweighs Mary on found family points in almost infinite supply and now Mary’s being tested not on abstract family love from blood ties, but the gritty stuff, and… yeah. Looks bad, Mary. Cas is their most treasured family for like however many years before you come back and then you get him hurt >.>

Oh and then Sam’s like “a hunter died” I mean talk about the personal with Cas and Dean vs impersonal with Sam and some other perspective thing they do *all* the time. Is that like, the star example now?

-

“I watch him die every night” YOu weren’t even theeeere

(Also Wally was married apparently… yikes. Piling on the angst.)

“Good.” Oh dear, that’s the “You’re dead to me” look. Mary probably shouldn’t start cataloguing these looks to chide Dean about…

[title card]

[ow]

-

Ooh is this like the Campbell’s compound? Looks like Mary’s gone dark, literally, wearing her dark beanie hat and Mary-sized version of Ketch’s going around killing things suit. I wonder if they also give her fancy tailored suits for their down time. Anyway I have no idea why the BMoL have access to such a thing - you’d have to assume they have internal help here, Muggle proofing if not, or are ready to deal with the problems of randomly making an armed compound in the wilderness in America.

Or they’re on a remote industrial estate in Northumberland.

TBH if they’re just bribing local authorities to look the other way while creating a massive armed compound full of foreigners I wouldn’t actually be that surprised.

-

More random egg shaped BMoL devices. Some BMoL version of Q really has a thing for that shape. “Gonna spray paint it gold.” “WHY. What about stealth?” “They ain’t gonna need stealth with whatever this egg thingy does”

-

Mary and Ketch both space out remembering what the gold whistling egg thingy did. Ketch looks slightly turned on. Mary looks like she’s having a bit of fridge horror about what her job currently involves. It definitely feels like she’s washed up in a dystopian future and I think we should be treating her POV on it like “time traveller to the far flung future where everything is awful” and not like any continuation of the world she used to know >.>

-

Ah they’re living in shipping containers. This is now definitely the Doctor Who vibe I got from the promo and didn’t want to mention anything about because Tumblr vs Doctor Who these days, but shh I’m both nostalgic for RTD era and British, okay. It looks like those episodes where they just show up on a research base on some planet/under the sea/in space which is a bunch of shipping containers bolted together, with a high tech interior, and then shit goes down on the tiny enclosed shipping containers, with a great cast of random one off characters who usually get eaten >.>

Also this means the BMoL basically just shipped over a base and plonked it in the American wilderness and have a sort of razor wire over the fence keeping the monsters out mentality about it. They’ve seen just enough Doctor Who (it’s a national passtime) to know what to do here, and America is all full of ikky monsters, and should definitely be treated like a hostile alien environment.

I suppose this is their “embassy” for their diplomatic mission and I am rabidly curious about how it looks to the locals, because the Campbell compound at least had that American survivalist weirdoes feel to it, where you kinda know there’s a strange local family on their huge compound out of town and they all have guns but you just… don’t ask questions and hope they’re only waiting for the Rapture or something.

-

So it turns out Ketch is a total dick. Surpriiise. I hope Serena kills him and survives the episode. “I have three phds” - she’s the hyper competent one who in Doctor Who would probably end up being the only one knowing how to press some button and stay behind to save everyone and get ejected into space or something. Or be the only survivor because she’s smart and the Doctor appreciates her :P I have no idea why I’m making this into Dr Who cross over territory but I’m just waiting for the other personnel here to fit some of the usual tropes.

-

Mary in a tank toooop

-

Surprise surprise it’s Dean she’s been texting and is morosely checking her phone about instead of Sam, but if she tried him, the other promo video showed that he’s attempting to make peace. Winchesters, I swear. *shakes head*

-

They do all look good in tank tops though

-

OH NO more conversation.

-

“Our whole lives, you’ve been GONE” Oh DEAN this is… the kind of stuff I have been expecting/wishing they’d say to Mary and it’s so terrible that they CAN’T COMMUNICATE so it takes something so ridiculously messed up to make them talk about something like this.

They’re FINALLY telling each other how hard it has been to deal with being back/having her back… and because they left it so long, it’s all fucked up :(

-

*sits here misery-eating an apple* I might have go to get the giant box of waffles downstairs and eat them if it gets any worse than “How about for once you try and be a mom!?” “I am your mother!” (so they have 2 different definitions of this - Dean wants her to ACT like it, she’s using it like a title, and to HER that has all that complicated and REAL love but it’s all so abstract from what Dean WANTS and AAAH) “But I am NOT just a ‘mom’” And that’s all I wanted out of this season but it’s so painful I just wanna find the receipt and return it :P   
“And you are not a child” “I never was” bonus thing I only hoped in my wildest dreams we’d get out of the season but I feel like every single Dean!girl just took a critical hit and is laying on the floor in agony…

brb finding the floor

-

“between us and them” “yeah MARY it is" 

oh great she’s not "mom” any more with the title to Dean… 

“and you made your choice”

I can’t believe there’s actually a scene worse than 6x20’s confrontation out there like how does that even happen

-

Oh Sam, sitting here watching all that while Dean speaks for the both of you :S

-

But he gets up and follows Dean

“You should go” It’s more neutral, not judging her per say but obviously she can’t be here while Dean has told her to leave and Sam can’t take her side, he can just… not intentionally cast her out.

The stuff between him and Mary is stuff from the past - the stuff from 4x03. The stuff between DEAN and Mary is his early childhood vs what’s going on NOW. Sam and Mary stuff is being dealt with another way - this is the Dean part of the arc and Sam has to give up his mother for it

Argh >.>

-

Well that was horrible but I really appreciate the BMoL compound set.

-

“We already have the best Winchester”

uh

I have a pretty compelling argument for all 3 of the others (the third being Cas :P)

Obviously they did not see the footage of Dean in Purgatory

Or any time Sam does the shoulders thing

I mean Mary’s great and all but… we’ve seen 12 years of Sam and Dean being incredible hunters so it’s a bad argument to the audience :P

-

Ketch and Mick do have an interesting dynamic, I’ll give them that. Mick made Ketch kinda smile. Mick’s happy at his desk job. Please let him get menaced by a vampire and scream a lot. It’s all I ask for after that heartbreak. Lighthearted goofy vampire episode.

(Okay Berens is like, angst central. I think he couldn’t write goofy if he tried but that’s not why we love him :P)

-

Anyway someone higher up wants Sam and Dean recruited - right when the whole Mary thing seems to have cut ties forever and lost all chance they’d EVER consider it since it’s now the face of Betrayal and Families Being Shattered and all.

I guess 12x06 establishes that the Winchesters are semi-legendary themselves (although a very dubious look from Dean about the stories told about him) and Wally also seemed to idolise Dean in that diner scene. It’s a fair chance the BMoL “Old Men” are right about this re: other hunters. Unlike Cas and his actions getting him kicked out of Heaven and losing all social standing with the angels, one way or another the Winchesters seem to have scraped by as admired figures in their community. Mom Winchester is not well-known and the Campbells lost all cred years ago after most of them were murdered by Azazel’s lot and later Samuel’s little group also ended up all dying and getting a lot of their hunters killed (6x07, which no one seems to remember or watch but DOES introduce alpha vamp so it’s on my mind)… Not sure anyone knows them.

-

Okay Sam’s fucking around with the rings on the table but he’s assembled them in such a way they look like a kid’s toy - that one where you stack all the rings. Sam seems like he barely moved since the Mary thing, still being at the Conflict Table. Dean stormed off but now he’s stormed back and this is the promo scene, so let’s pay much closer attention to the words now I know the context…

-

Ugh Dean not dealing. He just wants something to hit. While wearing that red shirt of his Mark of Cain murdery moments (10x10, 10x17)

What even IS Sam doing on his laptop if he isn’t finding cases. 

Youtube. Happy dog videos.

-

“Do you want to talk about it” “Not really.” *starts talking about it unprompted*

Dean’s stewed on it, Sam has got all philosophical about it, once again putting his own feelings to the side to think about how Mary feels. “She must have had a good reason” Argh he’s just… so good… I love him.. This episode is making me love all the Winchesters (Mary included) more than I thought possible. I am in paaain.

I’m totally gone on this family. I love them.

-

“For once why don’t you pick a side?” FINALLY we see what Sam was hiding on his phone - that he’s been staring sadly at all the messages from Mary. Who is not saved as “mom” in his phone as she was in Dean’s, right? I should go check that.

oh god she was in 12x04, when Dean was still asking if it was weird to call her mom or not

and then he called her “mary” cold as anything

*I* need a drink

(went and got chilli hot chocolate)

-

Anyway yeah the trouble with telling someone to pick a side is that they may pick the one you don’t want and Sam’s last message from Mary was that she had urgent business to meet him, while Mary’s last text to Dean was just that she wanted to talk to him in a way that was still clearly about the fight. “urgent” implies new developments, a reason to go… Does she KNOW that the BMoL want to snare her sons or is she walking into it by just wanting to reconcile?

-

Sam goes to at least give the other side a chance, even if he’s not picking it.

Also is he driving a rental car. It doesn’t look so much like the car Soulless Sam had but it’s certainly not the junkers and stolen cars and vans Sam’s used before.

-

Also did she just go and give Sam the address of this place??? Not even meeting at a diner or something? I suppose it is a cool set.

-

Sam gives the compound a weird look like “wtf” as a sort of incidental moment when Mary references it

-

Anyway ARGH Mary telling him she’s working with the BMoL so that there’s a world without monsters - the magical endgame where the world is totally normal (but how do you stop witches and ghosts and all the stuff that happens in a world which is not like “Our” one in the French Mistake, where no magic at all happened… you’ll ALWAYS need hunters) if she doesn’t want to be JUST their apple pie mom, but to be a hunter too, she’s taking away her OWN way of living in an attempt to save them from their version of normal life

That Sam says he’s chosen. Argh, after all that waffling about whether he wanted to, or that he was only doing it because Dean is… I think when he gets to Mary saying that, suggesting a world where it’s not their life and no chance of going back… Maybe he really feels it for the first time? 

(”Normal life” ignoring, of course, ghosts and the fact unless you turn off magic and delete Heaven and Hell, there will ALWAYS be shit going on… Seasons 1-2 are the “normal” baseline type of this world, minus the extra demon activity attempting to destabilise it. And Sam and Dean mostly worked on ghosts, magic, and generic monsters, in a way that these things were just a part of the background of the world. Stuff like Provenance or Bloody Mary or Asylum were cases deeply rooted in their own history and with a long story behind them before the Winchesters stumbled into them, stuff John had been keeping notes on for years without tackling it, or had collected only half the picture. Or stuff which had been out in the world and would always have surfaced and kept on killing people if hunters hadn’t helped. Stuff like that, you can’t stop just by obliterating all the vampires. Monsters were isolated and stuff like the wendigo *takes a shot* were the sort of thing that just sort of happens, a horrible natural phenomenon along the lines of ghosts being created…)

-

I do wonder with Mary saying they can have normal lives, how much 2x20 is haunting this entire season as well, because the entire burden there that turned Dean to go save himself and go back to the shitty world where he was a hunter, was to hunt and save people. He even gave up being with Mary and Sam who was happy and with Jess and safe from the whole demon blood arc, because people had DIED. But Mary’s djinn dream I think would be eerily similar to that one - one where the responsibility was off them and they could be themselves but not hunters. It’s interesting to look at what she wishes - or the one that’s been planted in her head, because she is echoing the “world without monsters” thing… She too has hunting in her blood and 12x06 showed that too, that she never could give it up. She’s been paralleled to Dean a lot with that, and 2x20 is the episode where Dean is finally after wanting to give up all of season 2, brought to a point of decision and commits to, I guess, being a hunter for life and giving up that normal world where everyone’s happy and at peace.

Same decision from season 5/6 - that “peace or freedom” talk Dean and Cas had.

Now it’s Mary’s turn to go through the same arc. She’s going for, essentially, something we can parallel to the Archangels and their idea of paradise where everything is perfect. Dean kept talking about it being “stepford” then…

-

Oh noooo she brought up Sam going to school oh noooo

Why is every line in this dang episode just pure pain

where are my goofy vampires

“You’ve got to understand, things are going to change” Yeah, their plans are already underway and the threat is not going to be stopped by JUST talking Mary out of helping them. Have you seen the compound?

-

Uhoh Sam and Mary are walking in step. He’s like… so much more leg than her

-

And Mary shows Sam the control room so he can SEE that the BMoL are already deeply underway with their thing.

Since he and Dean are separated the vibes I’m getting are 9x17 (maybe because Mittens was talking about it yesterday) but because at the end of that having seen Abaddon’s soul mining operation, Sam comes back and sits with Dean and is way more onboard with taking her down than before and it unites them… Not saying that will happen here (more likely it will be subverted some way) but Sam’s getting a peek behind the curtain at what the bad guys are up to while Dean’s off drinking and moping around (see also, 10x17 although that time Sam was actively trying to save Dean while he was drinking also we now have at least 3 episodes were Sam and Dean were separated and the main reason given was that Dean was off drinking, this is getting PAINFUL)

-

“The Brits talk like they’re roughing it” yeah you can’t get the right fuckin’ tea in America, you have to bring all your own teabags and then Americans make fun of you for it. And there aren’t any jaffa cakes! What the hell!!

Sam sees Mick and is like “!!!” Mick sees him and is like “!!!” and then it’s super awkward.

Yeah don’t shake his hand, Sam.

“Yeah, um, I really dig the whole low budget Mission Impossible vibe, but I’m going to head back.” I LOVE WHEN SAM DOES THE POP CULTURE SNARK

He’s much quieter than Dean, so without him around he really gets to shine :P

Also amused at the budget comment because obviously Supernatural can not have the same budget as MI

-

“Sammeh!” I love it when he does that. I guess he’s stumbling in drunk. The shot of the sword to introduce us back to the Bunker was actually TERRIFYING. It also had an empty glass and whiskey decanter so I guess the bros or at least Dean have been wandering around the Bunker drinking everything/everywhere. >.> 

Nice establishing shot.

-

Sam’s note is not in upper case something is WRONG

-

Dean discovers MORE empty decanters and bottles. Wow you hit it hard. You should probably listen when Ramiel tells you you all have fucked up livers.

-

I’m assuming this is like 12x01 and the Bunker is “not safe” but this time the threat is real and not a fake out that it’s Cas coming home

and also Dean doen’t have his mom with him :(

-

Wait no apparently they knock

-

Heeeey it’s the other people I was expecting from the generic Dr Who cast. Geek with long hair and curly haired dude. Serena to keep them all in line. Mick as the weird sketchy boss.

-

Sam is the Doctor in this scenario, FYI

-

Tall and knows better than them.

-

“Hello mate”

I mean at least he knocked

-

I love Dean and Ketch looking each other up and down.

Also Ketch doesn’t think he’s as good as Mary, so tension - and not just that he wants to recruit Dean, but that Dean has to pass his opinion of whether he’s good or not.

This should probably end with Dean and Ketch like, grappling each other.

-

“how did you find us” “this is a Men of Letters Bunker”

-

Wow Dean being bribed with rare scotch. I’m reminded both of Crowley in general and how Dean won entrance with Rufus back in 3x15

but also think that his alcoholism needs to be addressed and he should, like, chill, because I swear he just CAME from getting a drink and he’s already desperate for another, enough to let Ketch in >.> Bad idea, he’s like a vampire. The regular non spn sort.

-

I mean his alcoholism has been mentioned a few times, especially with the liver comment

-

Awww curly haired dude is an American hunter, so there’s only like, 3 Brits here.

-

“Serena Coleman” - because of the twilight episode reference I’m just reminded of using the actor’s names so blatantly. Serena was already dressed like whatserface played by Jenna COLEMAN as a Dr Who reference but now this? Like, I have no idea if this is just confirmation bias but I really hope someone else got such ridiculous vibes from it as me :P

-

I am really quite disturbed by how many different countries they’re operating in

-

241 vampires in the mid west. That’s REALLY not a lot when you think about it, I mean, comparing them to demographics of people. Assuming the BMoL have been wiping them out with a focused effort, still means there really aren’t that many in general. I mean, back in season 1 & 2 they were recovering from being nearly hunted to extinction by hunters like Gordon and Dean spent a lot of season 10 killing vampires… I am reminded a lot of Eve talking about the natural order, about how a few of her children killed a few of the humans, and they killed a few but not ALL of them… a sort of equilibrium. And the natural order of how this world runs IS important and rarely mentioned. I’ve been thinking about Eve a lot in relation to this episode without knowing how to bring her into it really, but I guess this a good wedge to get her in >.>

-

ACK there’s only 11 vampires left

that’s just scary

-

*gratutious vampire flashbacks*

Oh they are so scary. I actually feel sorry for the vampires just for the fact the BMoL are so ruthlessly efficient and deal with the vampires this way, which makes you scared about how any organisation with the right resources could watch and profile in this way…

And we know the vampires can be SO much more complicated, like Lenore or Benny…

I mean they don’t know about the cure, the whole case by case basis of dealing with vampires in case it IS more complex and there’s still some humanity in them/can be saved from them, which the one on one process of the Winchesters treating them less like statistics has done… I mean sure the whole waiting for a trail of bodies thing isn’t ideal, but… doing the job HUMANELY stands out here.

-

Sam looks like he’s rooting for the vampires too. :S

-

Oh no, now some sympathetic vampires

-

*feels sorry for them*

-

Even while they’re drinking human blood.

I mean I am literally in a blanket and have drunk hot chocolate to recover - she is very relatable

-

ALPHA VAMP

Always got to have a dramatic entrance

-

Oh dear, Dean and Ketch, savouring their drinks, the bottle in the neutral territory on the map between them. I’ve only watched them drink so far, and I can tell this is going to be a top 10 use of this table, ever.

-

“Not much for small talk” He is when he likes you

-

Ugh his face when he’s talking about Toni. Ketch is not allowed to talk about women. He’s disgusting and filled with hate, and this actually does make me like Toni a little better just because I resent him talking about her as a neurotic time bomb

Also Dean, I know you hate her but don’t listen to this >.> Do not let him get to you a little by having a bonding moment over how awful she is. I know you are in a really dark place right now but don’t make me go through this with you >.>

“We used to date” Ugh.

I actually now feel sorry for her :P 

Berens: most reliable un-Buckleming-er on the show.

-

Ugh, I really hate this :P I mean, for Dean, because Ketch is intentionally channelling all the worst in him. This is where 12x11 and where I was horrified about Dean as an attack dog when it was all stripped away comes back. 

But he has a dual basic nature - SAVING PEOPLE, HUNTING THINGS. He was a sweet goof who loved and cared about people who were kind to him even when he had no idea between Sam or Rowena. He has a HEART. Ketch does not, but Dean has enough darkness in him to feel like he doesn’t have a heart, and he’s dealing with having told his mom where the door is. But he DOES have lightness in him. Ketch is like, dark side seducing him, with the whole “Inclinations” thing cluing us in it’s queercoded and a seduction… This has happened to Dean before. He’s wearing a red shirt he bought during the Mark of Cain crisis after CROWLEY dark side seduced him.

Of course that all involved the love triangle with Cas who represented the good side of Dean’s duality for having an angel and a demon on his shoulder, and feeling the pull between them… Dean here is taking on Ketch alone and there’s no pull in the other direction because Dean is isolated in the Bunker and Cas doesn’t have an opposing role to the BMoL so he has no narrative tug back in the other direction, on the side of them having a HEART.

(I just watched 9x22 last night and I’m still dying about how much Dean loves Cas)

Anyway Ugh. I don’t like the queercoded implications about demon!Dean that it seems more overt when he’s evil and I don’t particularly like that this is all Ketch “seducing” Dean to the dark by linking killing to that SO queer word “inclinations” about the both of them - I mean enough that Dean has to comment on it and wow that’s a moment and a half, for the bi!Dean annuls, but UGH.

Have to stop and meta in 3 paragraphs about how Dean has a heart and isn’t evil but is still queer and not because he’s a killer >.>

-

Jesus christ we’re at the halfway point - this is like the opposite problem of a Buckleming episode. I know Berens can DESTROY me in about 2 minutes of screen time, so I’m just, like, permanently on edge.

-

Anyway aside from everything else I hope Dean got to ride on the motorbike

-

I mean that scene was just so harsh on Dean, with Ketch winning his way in with scotch, and then winning Dean out the door with the promise of vampires to kill that he couldn’t find on his own earlier

(Big business came and stole all the work from small local businesses. They are a vampire hunting supermarket)

-

Yeeeee Rufus mention.

-

Aww poor terrible hunters. It’s like Garth - “How are you still alive!?”

I’d say Pierce should probably be black if he’s from Baton Rouge but honestly if he’s meant to be a dingus, then all the good hunters are probably escaping this by bad association and we don’t see a hapless idiot PoC hunter :P They’re all the top shelf ones Ketch can’t win over

-

The ones who take pride in their work and have enough confidence in their skills to not want to go work for the big supermarket >.>

-

*Dean disappointingly follows Ketch in the Impala*

They probably raced

-

Checking out each other’s equipment. Ketch opts to take one of Dean’s knives. You know, Dean has a corrupting influence on everything he meets, I swear :P Like, Ketch was complaining it was too easy, but still just going along with his job, he meets Dean, seems to be off-assignment because he’s just GONE to do it, no idea Sam wasn’t even there tbh, but gets Dean, lures him out, and then Dean just has to make the old school way of hunting look cool by waving a knife around and suddenly Ketch wants in and also has a go at flipping a knife… And he’s already getting “where are you??” messages from Mick. I mean, just the compulsion to meet the Winchesters on honest ground - now everything’s in the open. He didn’t even like them as much as Mary? But once he knows they need to be won over he goes to get at least one of them… But now he’s not answering his mobile, and Dean’s handed him a knife aaand

they really are being reckless by going in here alone without checking to see if something like the ALPHA VAMP isn’t here

-

Oh wait shit the vampires are coming to the BMoL

Maybe there really is nothing in the hotel

-

Oh no there’s just the sad vampire I was sorry for

Ketch don’t you dare kill blanket vampire

-

Okay, now Dean feels sorry for the vampires

That was a surprisingly short line to cross before Dean’s like hey stop being mean to the monsters

HE HAS A HEART

I guess if we’re subverting Bloodlust all you can do is make Dean not like the Gordon parallel even SOONER- in 2x03 he NEARLY fell for it… he WANTED to. He knows so much better now

-

(Bennyyyy)

-

This vampire looks EXACTLY like a girl I used to work with who coincidentally… was called Magda

-

“Hunting… they went hunting.”  
“Hunting whom?”  
“The hunters”

That was SUCH a good exchange. DRAMA. TENSION. SHEER TERROR ABOUT WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO BELOVED CHARACTERS

This season, notable exceptions, is SO much on its A game. Almost every episode has been like, High Drama.

-

Vampire tiiiime

-

Sam taking chaaaarge

I love it

-

Aw no don’t kill the one random black guy here. :<

WHY DID THEY LEAVE ALL THESE DOORS OPEN?

Is it because sealing yourself into shipping containers sucks and is probably airless and stinky?

At least in space they wouldn’t have this problem

(In a good Doctor Who episode even the random guards would have names and personalities and a decent story arc for a side character even if they get killed… In this episode the guards aren’t exactly the only hired muscle to save them because there’s at least 3 hunters in the building and one of them is Sam Fucking Winchester, so he’d be more likely protecting the hired muscle regardless :P Not like killing them did anything but remove characters to worry about rather than raise the threat level that would be in an episode when everyone else was nerds instead of trained killers)

-

Mick’s got soft hands though

All I ask is one scream of horror

-

“Our intel has him in Morocco. He’s been there for at least the last decade.”   
Sam, with barely a side glance, “Wrong.”

Yeah that’s been a theme all season and as far back as “Cassiel” - their intel SUCKS

-

Read the Winchester Gospels

Or… don’t. That actually turns you into an effective enemy

-

I love when Sam’s got the snarky interrogation face on. It’s a fun Sam

-

Mary’s wearing basically Sam’s red and black plaid but in a Dean way

-

Oh Mick is scared

-

And Sam has a headache at the stupid

-

Considering there’s only 3 hunters in the room they managed to scrounge up a lot of weapons.

Not enough…

“Where is it?” *significant looks* Okay, Sam’s going to find out now. He’s been much kinder towards Mary, obviously, even if he’s still got a ton of issues and meant to leave when shit started happening, but… yeah. Is he as forgiving or at least willing enough to hear her out when THIS is revealed?

-

*Mary side-glances at Sam*

-

*sword in the stone moment for Sam*

Who is literally crying to have such awful history returned to him. He knows this weapon is cursed.

-

I can’t deal with Sam crying openly while writing the ingredients for the bullets and also the lore dump of how they make the damn things like AAH I ALWAYS WONDERED

And Mick’s EYES. Like “what the fuck sort of hunters ARE these guys?”

This is what happens when you unexpectedly come across Legendary level hunters and you are all noobs

he’s met the alpha, lived to tell the tale, and now is telling you how to make bullets that could kill him

-

Sam Fucking Winchester

(I just wanted to say that)

-

Oh the red flashy lights in the corridors is SO Doctor Who

-

It occurs to me that 11x14 also was the sort of episode that mimics the tropes of one of those but this one has the aesthetic.

-

I think Berens just wants to write for Doctor Who

-

Pleeease, two vampires against Sam Fucking Winchester

-

[slightly evil nyoooom]  
Nyooooom

-

Mick sounds scared while doing the incantation over the bullets. Hope it works.

-

Dude, don’t stand with your back to the open door

-

… Amazingly that didn’t take more than a second to pay off.

-

Noooooo Serena

I liked her :<

-

*Sam Fucking Winchester kills everything*

-

Can’t believe the blatant disrespect for England that the alpha vamp doesn’t like us

-

Actually starting to worry Mick’s last episode is right here and now :P

-

Aww Mary is hurt and Sam’s instinct is to be all “mom!” and help her

I am so emo about this family, help.

-

I am so with the alpha vamp

-

I mean I will miss Mick but nah. Byeee.

-

Aww nope fortunes change all at once

-

*Mick legs it away from the alpha vamp and goes and stands behind all the hunters*

-

“If that were true I’d be dead already” I bet the lore about the 5 things is both right and wrong at the same time - we KNOW it doesn’t work on Lucifer, but I bet a ton of stuff pretends it won’t work on them, and honestly Lucifer might not have been right about 5, and basically there’s “recorded” like at least a dozen things it won’t kill

but in this case Sam calls his bluff because the alpha vamp is still talking with the gun trained on him instead of just fighting them…

-

Anyway Sam’s just like, ready to throw Mick to him

-

“Who said I was here to save all of us. My family and I, we kill vamps when they get outta line. And you’ve LET us.” “I have many children, Sam. What’s one, two, here or there…” “Exactly! So? Let my mom and me go. We’ll walk away, go back to the way things were. To the way things are SUPPOSED to be. Hunters and vampires. Cops and robbers! A fair fight!”

!!! I LOVE SAM SO MUCH

Also that “the way things are SUPPOSED to be” is denying everything Mary said about a world without monsters, and calling back to Eve’s natural order.

-

Poor old Mick

Maybe he’ll turn him into a vampire

-

“What are you doing?”  
“Picking a side”

LOVE HIM

-

That was a badass montage of how Sam got a bullet in the gun

-

Bye bye Alpha Vamp, Dabb tidies up another loose end and sits back smiling to himself - not a plot hole so much as the itch of “see you next season” being for nothing

-

Serena nooo

All the dead people

-

Oh, wait, I’m having the same moment as Mick

-

Mary like “come on” to him, quite gently

aaand walk out and there’s Ketch and Dean, 5 minutes late to the party.

Ketch lecturing Mick on his ivory tower and how people die…

Oh Ketch your attempt to get Dean didn’t work.

-

Awwww Dean was worried about Mary and Sam’s deducing it because Sam’s all deduce-y and stuff. When he has to deal with things on his own, he really shines. You should do more episodes alone. I’ve really missed you, Sam :P I feel like I haven’t seen you since 11x14

-

Are the Winchesters making up??

“It’s not your job to make me lunch and kiss me goodnight” Help

-

Aww they all made up

-

Ooops and here’s Ketch back being all awful and with the traitor hunter. Who’s “gone rogue”

I suppose this compares to 12x06 AGAIN, where they let Bucky go because they don’t kill their own, just ostracise them

but um

Still thinking about Samuel Campbell… is that ever going to come up? In this case the Winchesters seem to agree that killing this guy for selling them out to vampires is appropriate. Or, well, whatever Ketch does to him. Worse than death, maybe

-

Maybe Mary would understand despite the fact it was her father >.>

-

Had not considered that until after seeing this episode

-

Aw Sam no, I CRIED WITH YOU TODAY.

Was Sam talking crap with the Cops n Robbers speech or did he change his mind about the status quo? He picked his side in the moment Mick helped get the bullet to him? Or? Thinks the MoL are such idiots the only way to protect Mary is to go with her?

-

Dean looks kinda isolated at the end with Sam and Mary standing next to each other but he has had reason to DISLIKE Ketch after he roughed up the poor vamp girl, and he still indicates he doesn’t like Mary’s decision but he loves her anyway…

Kinda feel bad pointing out if he doesn’t go for it (and one of them needs not to) that kinda does mean he and Cas are left alone on this side :P

Don’t feel bad enough NOT to point it out and end on that note >.>


	15. 12x15

I actually finished watching the episode hours ago but right after I went and literally watched a big chunk of season 8 instead of this episode which is metaphorically a big chunk of season 8 >.>

this “expectations” thing is turning into a bit of a joke because I never know what to expect any more. This was much easier in Carver era :P From the previews it looks like a bit of a “monster of the week” with a hellhound and I sort of feel things are about to go up shit creek for Crowley and he’s distracted with the Winchesters which is his life story, but MAY let them find out finally. Gonna make Mary working with the BMoL look like a good decision.

Also may be a way to un-Buckleming Crowley’s choice with some better characterisation…

[rare edit to yell at past me oh my god. Also at Davy OH my GOD - note to self stop being so cynical about literally anyone but those guys writing :P]

As far as I can tell from the outside looking in, though Dabb’s been working through a really serious important list of loose ends, this is from the odd pile of things that end up on his desk complaining about one of his episodes which is “we need more Winchesters in glasses!!!!” after he gave us a few minutes of it in 8x14, and he shrugged and went, okay, someone find a reason to put them in the glasses again. Why not.

-

Oh yeah we’re on the monsters’ side. Starting again with the cute vampire girl from last episode saying “they’re dead. they’re all dead” and Mary shown killing a vampire. Before any title cards. Mary’s POV is on the other side of it. Telling us the world is changing and then Sam squinting suspiciously at Mick’s briefing about exterminating all the vampires. And the “pick a side” thing for Sam - monsters on one side, mom on the other.

-

Awwwwww 5x20 Crowley and his hellhound. A simpler time. When they were trying to cram Lucifer back in the cage. Funny reminder now to have moments before Lucifer bound in Crowley’s spare room.

-

Oooh right there’s Kelly and Dagon stuff in this episode. I think Cas too? You know I completely forgot because the previews were avoiding them but I’m pretty sure one of the episode descriptions actually mentioned them… Whoops. I guess this episode is going to be split between all that. At this point I don’t really trust the writing not to be ridiculously more complex and layered than I can guess from right here, so I’ll just enjoy these cold open people camping and laugh that I wrote a Winchester family camping trip as the code to 12x14

-

I can’t believe this guy is looking up bear attacks in the woods while they’re camping. And she’s a vet. Pfft :P How does he even have signal though.

Awww no they’re going their separate ways. She seems unconvinced that it’s going to work out anyway :<

He needs to stop asking trees to marry him.

Oh no now I’m invested in these people. They do not deserve to be eaten by hellhounds.

-

Nooooo

-

Oh no that was unintentionally hilarious with the puffy jacket throwing fluff everywhere.

-

Pfft some extras from the Walking Dead wander into the Bunker making obvious pop culture references. Do we even analyse that mention of Dad or do we just laugh hysterically and move on?

-

Wait so that time when they seemed to have it on set they weren’t just fucking around with the baseball bat because they felt like making one but it was actually going to be in an episode oh my god

-

I wonder if Mary has been watching The Walking Dead or if she hasn’t had time.

-

Being distracted by Mittens:

Wait - Sam is clean… is this meta or are we still in the pop culture reference?

mittensmorgul  
The things on Dean, “ghoul, wraith, siren.”

elizabethrobertajones  
yeah  
They fought a SIREN  
WHAT HAPPEN  
I want to know everything

mittensmorgul  
I DON’T KNOW?!

elizabethrobertajones  
I bet if it was “back to back to back” they didn’t have time for it to be complicated

mittensmorgul  
I mean, DEAN fought the siren, Sam is completely clean

elizabethrobertajones  
WHY IS SAM CLEAN

mittensmorgul  
And Dean’s been wearing his underpants for four days  
People are screaming OOC

elizabethrobertajones  
oh god

mittensmorgul  
I have no idea

elizabethrobertajones  
Ahahahahah  "Frodo"

mittensmorgul  
Sort of reminded me of how he looked after he killed the stynes

elizabethrobertajones  
Is that a thing

mittensmorgul  
:D

elizabethrobertajones  
maybe they intentionally USE those code names  
maybe Mary talked to Sam  
wait if Mick is telling Sam where to go  
has he given them “back to back to back”

mittensmorgul  
yes…

elizabethrobertajones  
and Dean did all the killing  
and Sam was clean  
Okay THERE’S the symbolism I was looking for :P

mittensmorgul  
do go on…  
:D

elizabethrobertajones  
I am literally paused just at “Frodo” and his missing campers message so idk what happens next  
but yeah :P  
Dean’s being used as the weapon here and Sam’s coordinating  
Aka trying to turn him into Ketch  
or Mark!Dean  
Sam doesn’t have any blood on his hands for these hunts  
and they’re coming too fast for Dean to process them and work out shades of grey  
….

mittensmorgul  
Yep

elizabethrobertajones  
which means the Negan thing is probably a reference to how bloody it has all been  
and not just a joke >.>

mittensmorgul  
nope

elizabethrobertajones  
they’re trying to turn him back into a bloody single minded hunter like John  
this is awful  
I LAUGHED  
now I feel horrible about it all :P

elizabethrobertajones  
Also Dean not being a germ freak about it all is probably a bad sign >.>

-

elizabethrobertajones  
Oh no Sam lying  
epically

mittensmorgul  
yep

elizabethrobertajones  
reminds me of 8x01 when he tells Dean how he found Kevin  
but he actually did that  
Dean like Purgatory Dean  
Wait fuck that baseball bat is his purgatory weapon  
*slides under the table* Go away Negan  
This is worse than the Eliot Ness thing

-

this show is getting too meta for its own good… Is this what happens after 12 years?

-

Anyway Sam comes up with something to baffle Dean with his technology know-how implying Dean is too dumb to follow - Sam rattling off computery sounding things and Dean sitting there bloody and unwashed and the John-Negan baseball bat in front of him and Sam like “the computer told me” and Dean being like “lol computers are good at monsters and porn” - he really is in a bad way :< I think one of those things where they balance Sam and Dean out. But Sam is WORKING on Dean as he said he would last episode - he’s intentionally wearing him out, letting him channel that need to kill things in a way Ketch couldn’t get Dean to indulge in because Sam knows Dean better and where his lines are. Taking him back to back to back to back on hunts stops Dean from having down time and appreciating the finer things in life, so he gets less and less nuanced as Sam works him down >.> Because as last episode showed, Sam aligns with Mick, Dean with Ketch but, like, obviously NOT because they’re both competent and kind and multifaceted. But Ketch is the Mark!Dean parallel, and wearing Dean down like this… yeah.

-

Honestly though baby wipes are so good they probably COULD get all that gunk off in an emergency

elizabethrobertajones  
Wait Dean is rejecting the Bunker’s shower after flicking siren bits everywhere and being gross  
this is actually 8x14 inverted

mittensmorgul  
RIGHT?!

elizabethrobertajones  
we start with him loving the Bunker  
and bitching about Sam messing it up  
and in 8x13 he goes on about the water pressure  
and now he’d just be happy with baby wipes

mittensmorgul  
D:

elizabethrobertajones  
…. and in 8x14 he puts that pic of Mary down and it feels like home :<

mittensmorgul  
I think they really are doing their best to invert 8.14

elizabethrobertajones  
10x22 also used that pic of Mary  
I hope it’s inverted in other ways

mittensmorgul  
but…

elizabethrobertajones  
like signing up for crazy ventures to get rid of all demons/monsters

-

“You smell like roadkill” ominous.

“I’m using that fancy shampoo you keep hidden” I love that they read a bunch of fan fic before they joined the show

-

Okay so Mittens informed me there’s mass hysteria about the next moment because of audio nonsense, which means I swapped from fuzzy bad sound to full crystal clear noise cancelling headphones with all the sound settings done properly, and caught Sam saying “love you too” to Mary and Dean like “catch ya later” to Cas. 

[side note: had no idea what she meant because I hadn’t heard a word of it before she told me there was hysteria] 

I’d already squeed just to see them pull up having these conversations because the set up is beautiful: Sam has picked a side and Sam and Dean are now at odds, and THESE are their sides. After last episode we could only hope/guess that it was logical that Dean n Cas might be a bit of a team in opposition to Sam, Mary and the BMoL but obviously that was just guesswork. Knowing Sam already IS a faction with Mary and Dean doesn’t know it, Sam starting this with a mention of “mom” as they get out the car and this little, uh… symbolic diorama? unfolds shows very clearly he’s communicating with his faction; Dean also on the phone shows that they have a split, that he’s in contact with someone who could be HIS faction and even before he said Cas I kinda knew because see above, guessing, and also the fact that he IS in contact with Cas more. So yeah, lines drawn between them. Something about them getting out the car together but not looking at each other, talking to their respective sides is just… really really well done. Also the way they’re talking over each other? They’re distracted with their own things, and not communicating, not listening in on what the other’s up to.

-

Of course then they summarise to each other - DOUCHEBUSTERS.

I am offended

-

Mostly because it’s like “lol Brits”

I feel bad there are hunters they hate more than the Ghostfacers, honestly.

Dean has better news - something’s killing angels in IDAHO. Specifically, the town that 7x15 took place in. So that’s 9x06 and 7x15 all at once. Wheee.

-

“Diner waitress Sara Deshenski has met an untimely and violent demise at the hands of an irate alien, so says her diner manager, Herb Nelson”

Bloody hell another dollar in the space jar

they really are going for it this season

they’re finally sending Dean to space :’)

-

The picture of burned angel wings in a trashy newspaper is so sad though… Look at Cas being sad.

Look at him still not knowing how to do the badge thing. I cry. My heart is overflowing with love for Cas. He needs Dean beside him to turn his badge around and laugh gently at his mistakes.

It does suggest he’s kind of stagnated as a hunter, because he hasn’t managed to figure this out yet >.>

-

He’s trying though - he’s Solange now! He knows you rotate out the identity from time to time.

-

Oh dear, Cas dealing with a real conspiracy nut. In 6x21 we were ROBBED of Cas’s side of the investigation into HP Lovecraft, probably because lovable comic beats were not how to make us think Cas was the bad guy but they’d be nothing else but, because that’s who Cas is, ALWAYS. Now, though, he’s got to do all the social stuff on someone who’s basically Ronald Resnik'ing this. I hope he has better luck not dying >.>

He has a pic of the Queen’s head taped to an alien which just makes me wonder if this is a thing to do with the BMoL and their terrible terrible bad wrong intel… Sometimes they know a thing, mostly they don’t… But they managed to scrape up a few grains of truth here and there. Obviously she’s not an alien or lizard person but who knows what else she might be >.> I like the whole Torchwood thing where the Queen was a werewolf and that was a royal family thing :P

-

Cas hanging his head in despair that he’s actually considering waiting to see what this guy’s evidence is.

Poor Cas

-

*Cas attempts to smile*

-

this description of the alley fight is hilarious

Kelly as the brood queen - remember the season 10-11 hiatus stuff about Bugs as the mytharc after we spotted the little VFX insect escaping Amara’s cloud?

-

Aw no the way he describes angel blades as “star metal” it feels weirdly poignant… Angels are cosmic - who knows what those blades are made of

(Zerbe knows, but aside from Zerbe)

-

“man in black - well, beige!” if this isn’t foreshadowing Cas getting a better coat.

I love how yellow eyes is still like, actually really deep and weighty and dramatic and scary still. Most things on this show have been completely run down INCLUDING Lucifer into being over-done. Such a good pick for this season.

-

Obligatory bear or cougar reference. I know it’s not hellhounds but 8x16 has Prometheus actually killed by a bear off screen and I find that hilarious and I’m thinking mid season 8 now. I think it was also initially reported in one of the cracky publications like the one Cas got ahold of (knowing he has to read that sort of nonsense to get a lead also is a sign of him developing as a hunter).

-

Oh gosh the perfect blurring of Baby’s engine over hellhound growling. Listen to her, she’s such a sexy beast :D

[edit at past!me: Okay I’m useless at predicting stuff but I wasn’t to know Dean x Baby would be a thing this episode so I’m proud of this at least… can you even objectify a car? She’s already an object]

-

Now we know that Gwen knows for sure about big invisible wolves coming after her, the promo scene where Dean jokes about what truth they could tell her and Sam describes how they lie (a lot) to her is even worse, because of course Sam and lying is clearly a huge thing this episode and he describes how the lie will “give her peace” and help her sleep at night. Dean’s being manipulated by Sam (PS I did not sign up for this) is probably very similar - Sam thinks Dean will sleep better at night if he doesn’t understand all the details of these jobs they’re doing and he’s keeping Dean in happy dumbed down hunter mode.

Playing INTO the top layer of Performing Dean, really.

-

Dean’s only joking about the ridiculous truth because he doesn’t know how important it is to HAVE the truth yet, and he’s empathising with Gwen’s position of being told the truth and finding it completely unbelievable because he’s also at the point where he can’t concieve of the truth.

-

Guys there is a hellhound sniffing your BUTTS

-

Sam n Dean are wearing black coats and hold their badges the right way up

-

Omg it followed them in.

AAAAH that’s intense okay that’s good writing. Thanks Perez. You are so good at tension. They all sit down and chill.

-

this completely changes “elephant in the room” to “hellhound in the room”

-

Anyway Sam does the Ronald Resnik thing with Gwen telling her with authority as the FBI that there was nothing supernatural about it 

“You’re no longer in any kind of danger okay?”

-

Also they really don’t have the right approach because telling her there’s no danger??? WRONG. They need to at LEAST follow the lead on her BF’s deal to tidy up loose ends, such as the fact that demons often catch a dozen people at a time when they’re doing the crossroads thing… They’d need to AT LEAST go back to where the deal was made and check nothing else happened?? Where is your instinct???????

Too busy lying to her

-

It’s so horrible that their visit allowed the thing in and now it’s in there with her

I AM SO WORRIED ABOUT GWEN HOLY CRAP

-

“Oh yeah she’s gonna sleep like a baby” *cut to Gwen being stalked*

-

Oh no now she heard it

GWEN

-

Omg she’s okay

-

*heart slows down*

-

Some nice relaxing Crowley and Lucifer nonsense to chill with

-

Crowley is really enjoying having a proper nemesis since the Winchesters are more like friends now so it’s not as fun to catch them and chain them up and taunt them.

Crowley says he’s ten steps ahead of whatever Lucifer thinks he’s doing. HM. Well he sure wasn’t LAST episode.

-

Well he’s behind on his paperwork anyway. The ridiculous windows also suggest peeking in on it - the sense the secret will come out.

This is such a great writing/directing combo

-

Cut to Sam and Dean actually telling the truth

-

Sam leaves out the detail about Dean being the cuter brother

-

Pfft

-

Okay I nearly spat tea at Dean being like “make you feel better. It was his idea”

This whole lying thing really isn’t working out for Sam. And Dean’s reaction to it is killing me.

-

“Did you really want something like, a hello kitty backpack. or the death of an enemy”

-

Dean and kids… he gets them

-  
mittensmorgul  
tort reform

elizabethrobertajones  
what  
like the cake

mittensmorgul  
basically to eliminate the sort of “law suits” like that ridiculous baby nonsense  
torts are civil legal cases

elizabethrobertajones  
Aah  
so if he’d actually listened he could have got rid of all the silly petitions :P

mittensmorgul  
like suing people over EVERYTHING. Usually considered frivilous, petty, or vindictive nonsense  
yeah  
:P  
and it was item #42 on his list (which also made me think of Door #42 in Heaven, aka the “escape hatch”

elizabethrobertajones  
that seems like a fairly apt summary of the problems :P  
if they just listened and paid attention they would eliminate so many stupid problems  
by actually dealing with things  
like the bigger picture things  
like reforming the way things work

[here follows about 10 minutes of sending pictures of cake back and forth while we debate what a torte is in our respective countries]

-

Why is Crowley still clutching the key for Lucifer’s Facilities room?

-

NOT MOOSE

PEACHES

-

God dammit has Berens been chatting to Perez about Drowley

-

GWEN. She’s like the ultimate outside eyes on their life, suddenly getting the whole truth when Crowley bitches them out for the Gavin thing on speaker phone

It’s brilliant

how has this NEVER happened before

12 seasons and there’s still new nonsense to explore

-

“have the kennel guards killed” YoU’RE STILL ON SPEAKER PHONE GWEN CAN HEAR THIS

Dean doing the “blah blah” gesture while they’re all listening in on this NONSENSE like it’s no big deal, overhearing a meeting between the King of Hell and his advisers

(Also this is a great way to tie the seemingly unconnected minions to the main story aside from having them deliver news since they didn’t come specifically to tell Crowley about what’s up with the MotW it’s all completely incidental and if Sam and Dean hadn’t already been on the case, well…)

(ALSO I love how in one episode the whole dynamic of Crowley and Hell somehow feels so much more like a proper court? And he’s got proper assets and people and… I don’t know, I love this depiction of his life)

-

Crowley dropping in on the random MotW conversation

Aaah it’s all shaken up

-

eeep clear shot of the moose skull in Cas’s truck. DO NOT WANT

-

Aw Cas has a friend. Kelvin! Do things EVER go well when he and random angels work together? NO. But I like Kelvin because he seems to like Cas for now, and they’re working on the same thing… HOW CAN THIS GO WRONG?

Aside from the fact he mostly appears to be here to be a redshirt for Cas unless he has Vital Info or something because Heaven has much better resources to track her than Cas who is doing it the hunter way.

-

Mom Hellhound… What a shocking twist :P I mean, I wasn’t expecting this backstory because I didn’t think there’d be one, but the fact this is the Mother of All Hellhounds and she was preggers when she escaped and Lucifer took her in like… wooow.

-

*snorts at how cool Gwen is at Lucifer being locked up* Like, cool, well, at least he’s not our problem. I mean I have the king of hell in my living room but he seems reasonable, and they’re all reassuring me that Lucifer is safely locked up so I’ll just… Yeah. Good.

Also Dean again repeating the lie that’s been told to him and backing up the story etc, happily going along with the truth as he knows it while we - and someone in the room - knows it’s a lie

-

God really sucks at making things though. Like, he put so much violence into the world? Eve and Leviathans were his creations too and they were… not exactly perfect. Pfft.

-

Crowley is excited to work the case… Oh dear, now he’s learning to be a hunter

-

“Just when I thought this gig couldn’t get any weirder”  
“Oh it can always get weirder”

Thanks Dabb

-

Aww the demon minions are so competent at being sneaky good for them. I have no idea who I root for here. I don’t LIKE Lucier or want him free, but Crowley’s minions being hilarious is like… my favourite thing. Whatever they’re doing. I just love it. So… little bit conflicted about what I want here

-

Although making demands of Lucifer is a bad idea.

-

When Dean says sticking with Sam to keep her safe, he MEANS it I mean Sam once fucking GUTTED a hellhound SINGLE HANDED like dang he’s the best bodyguard you could ask for right now

“Take care of her” “of course” or  _does_  he trust-

wait

no he’s just being precious about the car. A beautiful, beautiful woman.

I guess we know why Sam doesn’t get to drive so often; Dean just is THAT precious about her

-

Sam is not here for Dean fantasising about the car

-

Crowley like “you.”

“… why of everyone ever did I have to fall in love with YOU” probably

-

Uhoh Cas and an El Sol sign… He and Kelvin seem to be drinking water. The director appears to be like “how many angles of Misha’s face are necessary? Better try one more just in case” *rotates camera to bask in him some more*

Heaven is stable in a way where there’s nothing drastic to report. All the huge dramas since it was last a big plot thing itself have meant the angels have been trying to deal with everything and so busy headless chickening about all that they haven’t really been in-fighting. The death of all the alpha personalities helps too I guess.

-

“This is an all hands on deck situation Castiel. Including yours” “Okay so you’re here for my hands” Yeah that was snark. A grade snark. In a Cas way.

“you got more field experience than the next thousand angels combined” I don’t know if I should be more sad for Cas or Heaven

-

El Sol over Cas as Kelvin asks him if he would go back to Heaven - all his sins wiped clean… And challenging him over what he feels is home. Earth is quirky and smells like hay (pfft Cas’s truck) but does it FEEL like home to Cas? he already FINALLY feels welcome in his family with the Winchesters and has expressed openly that he loves them and they proved that he was family to them, so emotionally he’s really tied down already. But what feels like HOME to Cas?

-

And yeah this is happening in Idaho. 9x06. The FIRST time Cas gets asks what he is, what he wants to be… Oh gosh. Finally. FINALLY. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH

-

*quietly takes off my Dean!girl hat and puts on the Cas!girl one*

-

Now this mission has a different hook for him. The angels know he’s already working it but Kelvin offers him a different sales pitch because they know that Dagon is going around killing angels just as Cas does, or at least SOMETHING massively more powerful than the average angel is - his help is suddenly very necessary because they are SCARED and Cas is COMPETENT. So they can give him the resources he needs - much like the BMoL are offering to Sam and Dean. Do the dirty work for them and be rewarded with a platinum membership card

-

Holy fuck  _Joshua_

-

Dabb…

…

…

I don’t have the brainpower to hold together the threads of the show directly connected to Dabb

-

elizabethrobertajones  
“The Gardener’s got a plan”  
this does make me think of Metatron though  
I like Joshua  
but…  
it’s sort of ominous  
these small time angels with a big time connection to God  
and God is not so great himself

mittensmorgul  
yep

elizabethrobertajones  
in the 9x23 thing [rewatch; not currently posted because this is literally how far I am] I got distracted writing about Metatron answering to “God”  
because he’s modelling himself AFTER god  
and later talks about how God was not such a great Creator and how Metatron saw behind the curtains  
like.. Metatron’s plan is sneaky and awful and cruel  
but he was behaving like God??

mittensmorgul  
yeah, but Joshua was the gardner God talked to. Joshua just listened, and tended the garden Chuck thinks of as his “greatest creation

elizabethrobertajones  
who has some sort of cruelty in his own creation making hellhounds and leviathan

mittensmorgul  
yep

elizabethrobertajones  
Joshua seems nice and all but God related to him as a gardener  
just as he related to Metatron as a writer

mittensmorgul  
after he locked up the darkness, he was trying to create that balance on his own, but he really lacked the finesse to do it properly

elizabethrobertajones  
which is ominous :P

mittensmorgul  
yeah

elizabethrobertajones  
Hm  
and the writing is controlling the narrative on a BIG scale

mittensmorgul  
yep

elizabethrobertajones  
gardening, if you were controlling the world, would be clipping it into shape  
like just tidying it up taking out some weeds  
like say  
eliminating all monsters

mittensmorgul  
but if we’re about balance and finding better ways, and Chuck’s still talking to Joshua… now that he’s reunited with Amara maybe things CAN be better now?

elizabethrobertajones  
maybe?

mittensmorgul  
hopefully?

elizabethrobertajones  
I haven’t watched to the end of this scene  
don’t know if Joshua is still talking to God :P

mittensmorgul  
BUT CHUCK SAID THAT DEAN WAS THE ONE CARRYING THE STORY NOW

elizabethrobertajones  
yeah

mittensmorgul  
he put the earth in DEAN’S hands

elizabethrobertajones  
Dean gets to decide what happens and he doesn’t approve >.>

mittensmorgul  
Dean’s the gardener now

elizabethrobertajones  
:D  
And he tends to the garden in the traditional ways which WORK  
and keep a good sort of peace

mittensmorgul  
I think he likes the weeds

elizabethrobertajones  
eyah  
he relates to the weeds  
knows some dandelions can be pretty

mittensmorgul  
he thinks he’s one of the weeds

elizabethrobertajones  
no need to rip them ALL up  
yeah >.>  
poor Dean

mittensmorgul  
heck, most of the "weeds” are food for the bees  
balance

elizabethrobertajones  
CAS SAW IT ALL  
back in 7x21  
the whole plan  
it was perfect

-

Anyway Cas has some shit to think about while Dean gets his act together to just ask him to marry him and put an end to all this uncertainty

-

Awww this guy wants to be the king of the crossroads I’m rooting for him

-

ew the other demon wants to make hell great again. Kill the white guy. Leave the new king of the crossroads alive

-

Nooooo

-

I am disappointed.

-

Also annoyed Lucifer is free again

-

But blah I liked that guy :< This show sucks. Stop killing the great one off PoC

-

Thinking of which, I hope Gwen survives because she’s brilliant and also incidentally hispanic which shouldn’t be a thing at all except now I’m terrified she’s going to be added to the show’s stats because I just don’t TRUST them

-

Dean in glasses! Crowley flirting with him… Dean being flattered (smiling to himself ew) but telling Crowley to shut up for appearances sake

-

Crowley saving Cas being the thing that finally makes Dean say thank you and feel like Crowley has gone a bit soft. (Also stop being genre savvy about saving the girl of the week, Dean :P)

-

Glasses give him +5 nerd points

-

“Maybe I’ve rubbed off all over you” *Dean comically shudders*

They’re getting along. It’s horrifying.

Berens definitely pulled Perez aside and gave him a talking to with diagrams and flowcharts about how this all happened

-

This is such a good scene I watched it like 3 times but the third time I went back too far and saw Lucifer kill the poor demon guy I liked again so my mood is yo-yoing around

-

I seriously appreciate the subtext for the whole bi!Dean project and the fact that they’re exes who’ve now moved to this weird comfortable happy place where this all happens? The way Dean reacts? God, why did it have to be Crowley but now we’re here, I am so appreciative for the sake of the bizarre way this show is running on and on and on past several points it could have ended and made Drowley less of a strange point of CONSISTENT data. But here we are. Dean is cheerfully wandering around with Crowley, deflecting flirting, smiling to himself, being nice about the whole saving Cas thing because of course this is a bizarre point in the love triangle too - I mean… So weird. God, this never should have got this far. So Crowley can make a joke about rubbing off all over Dean, and Dean just playfully shudders about it, and and… what the heck is this even any more? The show has been playing along with it for so long… I don’t even know if they’re DOING anything with it, except for their vague horror that they have to preserve this dynamic and are being faithful to the characters to move them through all this as realistically as they can.

-

Anyway in more current developments thoughts, Dean again being honest and emotionally genuine and friendly. Crowley might be lying about Lucifer but Dean, who is caught in the middle of everything but in a really good place of his own, responds really well to everything. Him being happy and sweet and OPEN is all the more crushing because you know terrible stuff may be about to happen with reveals of more deceit or manipulation, but Dean’s being put in this “can do no wrong” place while he’s unaware of everything, so reaching back out to Mary, not falling for Ketch’s shit last week, thanking Crowley this week… Always being caught in the place of dramatic irony with lies Crowley and Sam are telling… yeah.

-

Sam in glaaaasses

can he even legally drive with the distortion of wearing glasses that aren’t his prescription?

-

Gwen, don’t puke in the car

-

Dean is so distractingly attractive

-

yeah that’s it that’s the entire scene

-

Gwen manages not to puke in the car, because Sam pulled over in time. I SWEAR it is the same place Dean pulled over to puke in in 11x10

-

She takes on all the guilt and responsibility for her boyfriend’s death just for having invited him out to the woods, as their goodbye thing, when she never loved him as much as he loved her; she was going through the motions before breaking up with him and moving away.

“Why couldn’t I just tell him the truth”

Liiiies

“I lied to make things easier!”

-

Ooh Mittens pointed out Gwen is a vet too - Sam and vets is a thing because AMELIA. (And a dog just hit them lol)

-

Poor Baby. And Dean was just worried Sam would fuck up her brakes! Dean’s concerns again being based on small scale what he knows and not the big horrible truth, which is that Ramsey is gonna jump all over his car

Although not strictly Sam’s fault here

-

The car is almost sort of Hellhound proof? She’s not breaking through the windows?

-

“We should leave!”

Can you drive faster than a hellhound? I’d LOVE to watch Sam try. But he decides to fight instead of driving off to try and prioritise getting Gwen away from danger

-

I love that the view through Sam’s glasses showing us Ramsey is all fucked up and distorted because they’re the wrong prescription glasses… BUT it gives us a similar “eye” back to her like the distorted view when the camera pretends to be her…. She and Sam staring each other down :D

-

Oh fuck if Sam kills her could he start doing the trials again? Like, working with the BMoL, casually bring it up at staff meeting and suggest that he’s ready to go for round two?

-

Bad idea Sammy

-

COOLER TO THE HEAD. ILY GWEN 

Yeah I was getting Baby (the episode) vibes from Dean’s love of the car and the fact that was the last time she got smashed up but now the green cooler is back in play I’m yelling :P She protects her boys and everyone who rides in her.

-

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH LOOK AT THIS *gestures the entire scene wildly*

-

Aw crap no the blood splattered Sammy in the right place and everything

Sam no

Don’t even THINK about it

-

*Sam huffs his shoulders*

He did also get the blood all over him unlike how Dean was the one splattered at the beginning of the episode, so I guess all that stuff that wigged me out has a flipside - that Sam still is a great hunter who will get his hands dirty and take the burden onto himself. It was unsettling, yeah, but Sam’s still Sam? Maybe? I’m not sure what this is saying tbh because it was SO clear in the opening but I don’t know enough has changed right now, and ALSO in the next scene Sam is clean again like he washed off and changed before he even reconnected with Dean which just makes me think he felt guilty standing around splattered in hellhound blood because they remember what THAT led to last time… Sparing Dean’s feelings or hiding what he’s up to?

-

“And this is why you don’t drive!”

-

AHAAHAHAHHA someone hugged Crowley

-

Best moment.

-

He’s been thanked by everyone now, and got to see the gratitude of the random girl of the week… If Lucifer weren’t waiting for him back home he’d almost have had a good day, if he could nurture something like that in his twisted black heart :P

-

“He seems nice”

“Yeah” *Sam and Dean pull faces*

-

Crowley like “welp that happened” when he walks in to see Lucifer gone

-

Lucifer wings!

-

Oh :P Crowley’s got him on a leash or something. Nice. Lucifer underestimates how many steps ahead Crowley is even after he TOLD him it was 10, he remembered 2…

-

Wow he’s powerful over Lucifer

-

Now the part where Lucifer doesn’t have any chains but he’s still trapped

Hah okay that was masterful

-

Perez owns Buckleming. He’s 10 steps ahead when they think they’re 2 :’D

How do you EXPLOIT their bad writing like that for your own diabolical ends? That’s just

wow

that exposition and set up for Lucifer and Crowley in 12x13 was some of the shittiest writing the show has ever produced about a major plot event and that’s saying something. I felt my soul leave my body. And I was so upset Perez had that big spooky reveal at the end of 12x12 and Buckleming got handed the “here’s how to explain it” brief and I don’t care if they knew what was coming later, they wrote 12x13 as the shittiest episode ever, with no effort on their part. I was like, wow, this is stupid, and it FIT their style. It was part of their THING to make Crowley look like an idiot and make us question wtf he was doing and they presented it all so terribly, so boringly, so… unimaginatively…

we actually bought that was what had happened

so the actual reveal that Crowley is 100% in charge and always has been

actually

came

as

a

fucking

plot twist

-

I’m sending Davy a fruit basket

-

Yay Dean talking to Cas on speakerphone

Oh no is Cas at the playground?

-

Oh dear, he’s actually going back to Heaven… That can’t end well

-

Dean: “Does he sound weird to you” YEAH OKAY it definitely IS dodgy. We listen when Dean doesn’t think Cas sounds all right, because DEAN KNOWS. HE ALWAYS KNOWS. DEAN IS THE MOST ACCURATE COMPASS FOR TELLING HOW CAS IS AND HE ALWAYS KNOWWWS

How can Davy ruin me with Destiel in an episode where they talk twice briefly on the phone and there is barely anything about them in the structure?

Pfft

Dean also has a better instinct for Cas working with Heaven the BMoL parallel/they a parallel for Heaven, than he does for Sam doing it apparently.

ANYWAY ET GOES HOME. We powered through season 8 just there I guess :P But it’s not the end of season drama it’s happening in episode 15.

The whole thing that this is the Question for Cas. The BIG question. The ENDGAME question… Of course we have to make him jump through a ton of loops and explore what he really wants, but if this is powering him towards an actual DECISION?

-

But he was doing well as hunter!Cas without their resources and he loves his human family and they love him, and unlike 8x23, since everything is being inverted, he is more emotionally aware now not to run off and leave in the same way he was planning to in 8x23

-

Anyway this did not go how I was expecting! I was expecting Sam to not tell Dean right away but instead we end another episode with Dean getting the SAME news in the same spot (hi table) and… taking it in about the same way over 1 conversation he did in 2 episodes. He already had to deal with Mary, and at this point it just seems like his family are going after the BMoL like lemmings.

Boy is he betrayed though.

Sam’s compartmentalising things again. Because of HIM the alpha is dead. They were as helpless as the “girl of the week” if Sam hadn’t been there. Sam saved all their butts from the alpha vamp while making it sound like THEY did it.

-

I suppose Mick made him the bullet

to his recipe

that he then magnificently got from Mick

and you know

actually shot the alpha vamp with

-

Also ARGH “How much you hate them” “No, WE hate them, us, together” - just, Sam. Sweetie. They tortured you. Even YOU felt upset to hear Mary was working with them and needed 3 days to box it all up enough to talk to her. 

Sam seems to be acting like Dean’s just being over-protective now to hate them irrationally because they hurt Sam, while Dean can’t even believe he has to make this into an issue which should be one of those unbreakable brother things they they do as a team. He’s not even the literally injured party here, not in the same way.

-

Dean looks gorgeous while he’s thinking it over. Flippin’ heck. Stop.

-

Anyway he gives Sam the same basic talk he gave Mary, essentially, about not liking it. Admits Sam is right about working with people they don’t like, and that clearly he’s wrong. He TRUSTS Sam and wants to trust Mary. And she has given Ketch the burn it all down speech, where Dean now says they get out as soon as it stinks.

-

I don’t like that Dean thinks working with Crowley is comparable. Crowley is someone Dean has learned to trust in his own very specific way after being burned MANY times by him but also having a sort of attachment they’ve grown through all the years of being nemeses. They’re used to each other and can generally rely on each other for exactly the things they rely on. Saying, well we just worked with Crowley, let’s give these guys a shot because we don’t like either of them, does not BEGIN to cover the range of issues with the BMoL… Even the ones they KNOW about

-

“The second something seems off, we bail” Okay I haven’t seen a promo for 12x16 but I know the synopsis so I don’t think it’ll last long :P

-

Dean’s FACE in that last moment though

Ow.


	16. 12x16

confession: I really like Mick

Also if he makes it out the season alive and comes back to England I’m finding him myself to kill him.

Maybe the show is running behind time and that’s why Cas’s car was parked in my town

—-

I’m barely taking off my shoes and sitting down with some tea and I’m getting a faceful of the werewolf lore

(Claire continues to be linked to Dean and hunting, not Cas and angels)

they’re stressing the detail about the werewolves not being like the ones in Heart, still, with Robbie’s helpful change in 8x04 to make werewolves easier to write. That’s interesting to me just because we’ve spent so much time remixing everything lately that stressing that something isn’t how it was in season 2 is more of a meta point than normal. There’s also, I think, an assumption people know the show very very well by now, and it’s written like you’d know all the random tiny plot details, or at least, the remixes and re-dos are all easter eggs for if you are well-versed enough in the show to spot them. Telling us it’s not like it was in the old days has got more important than season 8 - which attempted to soft reboot the show TWICE. (in 8x01 and 8x12) … Season 12 is the hard reboot where you hold down the power key for 10 seconds and then let it shut off before you try again :P

season 12 recap stuff, condenses down Dean vs Ketch interestingly with several more reaction shots than I’d have expected, including one from I think 12x08 while Ketch was showing off his toys - a real focus on Dean’s conflict with them but NOT reminding us as a recent previous episode about stuff like Toni and Ms Watt or Sam getting tortured. Short term memory, or there’s always the queer-coded stuff between Dean and Ketch and I do think it’s going to be between them at the end whatever happens to Ketch just because they’ve been shoved together so many times now so it makes sense to make Dean’s emotional focus here suddenly switch to hating Ketch, and Ketch making a play for him etc and Dean saying about that they’ve worked with people they don’t trust, overlaid with a little clip of him and Crowley hanging out in glasses, which, of course, again parallels that his lack of TRUST in Crowley is oooh so layered with maybe not trust but reliance, familiarity, and a weird sense of even friendship or family if he’d dare admit it… to DEAN Crowley is much more than he might be to Sam or Cas - THEY would easily be like “uh we don’t trust Crowley and hate working with him” while Dean’s probably like “Okay so he turned me into a demon that one time and we’re not making any excuses but - ”

there’s also speculation some people have about the fight coming down to the line about Crowley and Dean having to face if he really would save Crowley or not (even if he can pretend it’s just repaying the favour for Cas or whatever)

also blah blah interpersonal drama with Sam and Dean, we know how that goes

-

The sign we start on says “cold beer and wine to go” - what kind of a bar is this :P

I hope it doesn’t have wine out of a vending machine but this is the sort of establishment my brain has decided to expect. (It’s called the Lucky Badger so who knows)

-

Oh dear the cold open girl is lying blatantly to whoever Ben is, saying she’s studying (with her friend Angela, so… I have no idea yet but using a name with “angel” in it probably is an easy way to get in character mirrors >.>) - he’s right behind her and turns out to have been watching her as she texted, so probably spotted her in the Lucky Badger or had been creepy stalking her

He seems to think it’s a joke though so I guess he’s either a werewolf so no wonder he’s not taking it personally outwardly - if he’s pissed off with her he’s way more dangerous in other ways than just having a fight, or they’re friends, and this actually is a joke to him. Either way, she didn’t seem to like him texting her like that and wanted to lie in the first place.

-

Nice shot of the moon.

-

Oh, they’re siblings. That explains the entire dynamic as a normal human interaction :P He’s 100% allowed to teasingly be concerned about her getting into trouble, and the “busted” comment is because they both answer to the same higher power aka their parents. And if you saw your sibling at a bar they weren’t supposed to be at, that’s immediately within your right to jokingly freak them out via text message, because the whole level of interpersonal drama changes… if it was some bloke she knows being over-protective or over-interested in her life, then yeah. brrr. Of course the show has all the stuff about Sam and Dean policing each other and taking it too far with that and their overprotectiveness, but for now this all seems normal enough for writing siblings, as long as we stick a pin in that thought in case that’s a meta thing later >.>

They also have mom drama. She won’t let them get a car, aka a sign of being grown up and personal freedom - the girl teases her brother for not having a car but he speaks about it as “us”. The mom is deciding when they get to grow up and on what terms. (In 12x01 it seemed like Mary might get possessive over the Impala and we were speculating/wondering if that would happen. So far she hasn’t driven it or been given a reason to. Wherever they stashed the Impala between 12x08 and 12x10, Mary never got hold of it in the weeks they were gone. I’m now reminded I’m waiting for Mary to drive Baby for some reason.)

I’m tentatively labelling yellow plaid guy as Sam because tall, and girl in short shorts Dean because… she’s shorter.

Kudos to the actress for doing all this in the snow

Anyway the brother tells the girl to act her age (they’re now pinging my Twin radar which would be fascinating to have MORE fraternal twins in one season especially in the aftermath of God and Amara - Alicia and Max are interesting but I guess they aren’t reliable data until there’s more sets to measure them against), and doesn’t want/need the car/personal freedom, or to be sneaked into a bar to get a Moscow Mule, while the sister is acting out and trying to get that freedom/do things beyond her expected age.

The brother says the mom is doing the best she can, which of course has been Sam’s role mediating between Dean and Mary and wouldn’t be weird for him to say

Also more teenagers/young adults thinking about leaving home/growing up - Gwen last episode leaving to go to vet school, these guys 2 years from whenever Actual Personal Freedom hits them (what age does that happen for Americans? I’d just assume 18 if they were British meaning they could be 16, which looks way too young for these guys, but American drinking laws are weird so they could be 19 and still 2 years off bar hopping as a way of life :P - anyway Claire should be coming up to 20, if she hit 18 in season 10, so I’ll have to assume these guys are 19 and therefore a year older than when I’d assume teenagers get personal freedom >.>)

(they’re TV teenagers and therefore the actors are probably 25 with youthful faces)

Sam and Dean have regressed or never managed to “leave home” in the sense they never had a home to leave from and fell out of the nest aged Way Too Young, and there’s been meta I’d seen about at least Dean and Cas (separately) having adolescence or childhood arcs, and of course in season 12 with Mary back, Sam and Dean are metaphorically zapped right back down to aged six months and four, respectively, with a need to reconcile Mary back into their adult lives, and for her to reconcile adult Dean and Sam back into hers. It’s nice if the subtext is moving them up to adolescence in this respect because it means they’re nearly adult and ready to fly the next properly and to be their own people. If they don’t get mauled by hellhounds or werewolves first, like the poor sucker from last episode who never made it out of his hometown or married the girl… Bit worried one or both of these kids are about to die, because, well, cold open.

They are the right sort of age that the boy could get eaten, the girl turned, and then she’s a new BFF for Claire as werewolf friends :3

-

Yay she’s genre savvy - she knows not to go into the woods when it’s dark and full moon :P Come on you have to survive this…

Dean was being genre savvy last episode. Also Ben is not listening to his sister’s concerns (and it seems fairly obvious speculation that Sam might not listen at first to Dean’s concerns about the BMoL)

Oh AND he calls her a drama queen, after Sam said Dean was “dramatic”

I feel almost bad for making the call about this parallel entirely from the short shorts.

“It’s fine I’ll prove it”

You are so going to get eaten by werewolves.

-

LOL she has a “Bae” in her phone that she’s coming right back to

I hope it’s Angela

-

Nooooo she got attacked

she still looks, like, not devoured. She is presumably just turned. (Is she called Eden or Eve? I can’t make out the dialogue at all here)

Heh called it, Ben gets his heart ripped out by the corny mask-wearing monster (a monster playing up being a monster - I’m on Monster Movie red alert because that’s like a fave episode ever and we never refer back to it when we really should because it was Edlund at his best :P) - I mean obviously updated from the Nosferatu generation to the Scream generation.

I’m also gonna assume this lame teenage werewolf in a mask (come on, he’s wearing a mask and a hoodie) is a peer they know, and like the shapeshifter had a thing for Jamie, kinda wants the girl for himself here.

I’m gonna assume Claire is our “Mr Harker” because she is, after all, a Dean parallel.

-

Anyway that’s a grim sibling parallel - the one who didn’t believe/listen to the concerns gets his heart ripped out just for playing around not treating it as seriously as he should, and the genre savvy short-shorts wearing sibling who just wanted to drink in peace with the bae has presumably had as far as we know for now irrevocable damage done to her life…

-

I hope someone’s written a lot about Sam being trapped in this triangle:

because that’s fascinating. He’s definitely separated from Dean and encased/caged in it; whether it’s technically a halo because it’s glowing or not is a thought for later. But that’s not an accidental shot and it’s definitely singling Sam out

-

Oh good, Dean’s temper is doing well.

I thought he’d taken his jacket off for the first shot and was about to comment on that because Sam’s in a bulky jacket, but it turns out they’re just trying to kill me with the wardrobe because that IS Dean’s jacket painted onto his back and shoulders there.

-

Dean’s chafing at having to “report for duty” with them - the getting cases was fun (especially when he didn’t know where they were coming from, or at least, may have suspected but didn’t ask questions)… but now he’s being treated like a soldier, and he has issues with the big picture - it’s staring at the map looking at the scope of their organisation that’s got his mind on this, and that comes with the fact they’re being used for the big picture stuff. Last time he felt like this, I think, was in season 6 between 6x07>6x10 where he’s resenting working for Crowley doing pretty much this exact same thing with taking out monsters - of course 12x14 had aaaall the parallels and callbacks to season 6 and the Campbells.

-

Mick’s actually still upset about the poor dead people from last time we saw him - nice to see emotional continuity and that this really is part of his arc.

“Wow that is some world class repression, you really are British” - You know if there was an olympics for it, Dean would have taken home the gold medal pretty much every year until now. Shh Dean. Just because you’re the Honesty Hour character NOW

-

I love Dean’s look at Mick after “stiff upper lip” - not sure if it’s understanding, or intimidation, or a bit of both. Or the old “he said a weird phrase in a British accent, is that meant to be an innuendo” double check.

(Everything said in a British accent is an innuendo)

-

Oh the girl’s called Hayden, I think. Thank you, Mick, for speaking in an accent I actually understand :D

-

Ahaha Mick did EXTENSIVE research. He’s an EXPERT you guys. I really headcanoned hard he’s always been a hit the library hard kind of guy, which is probably how he got as far as he did in the ranks of a top secret HEREDITARY order while having a coded in media as lower class accent. Kinda nice to find out he was top of his class in “hunter hogwarts” to quote whoever said that… For some reason I’m convinced it’s Bobby but I think that was because he made a joke about phoning Hogwarts when they were hunting dragons.. hang on, I need to look this up.

OH Crowley in 9x11. Of course.

I wonder if he knows there’s actual schools for this. We don’t actually have much Crowley and BMoL interaction to go off.

I’d assume it’s higher education style, sort of like going to law school or whatever, but instead you go to some country house with a big lore library… I can’t imagine there are many students.

Dean has come to learn that people around him will incessantly reference whatever a Hogwarts is, while Sam, a Nerd, references it and Mick, a British Person Alive Since 1997, is just like yeah that place. This is almost no indication of nerd cred whatsoever.

-

Sam’s like “COOL” and Dean’s like “Oh god shut up” with his glare. Like, he KNOWS he’s watching Sam get suckered in with everything Sam would love (lore, Harry Potter references being acknowledged) so it’s like, OBVIOUSLY you are not being critical and careful here, you just said “COOL” and looked at me with that enthusiastic smirk just like that guy who got eaten by a werewolf in a silly mask in the cold open.

-

Also Sam WAS critical in 12x14 and ready to leave, but changed his mind after events; of course Dean didn’t see that and doesn’t know that Sam gave Mick the exact same wariness that Dean is giving him now.

However Dean always tends to be right (and it’s blatantly obvious the BMoL are a bad idea to US) so clearly Sam didn’t vet them hard enough…

-

I love that Mick wants to come along for said personal development reasons and NOT because he’s Umbridge-ing them like I had been speculating. (that’s a verb, I’m British, let it happen :P)

He and Sam seem pretty good at talking each other up about 12x14 - Sam credits them wholly with killing the alpha vamp, like he might have just been the trigger finger but they did everything (and he and Mick did pretty much tag team it all, from making the bullets to getting one TO Sam to shoot the Alpha so I can see how circumstantially, ignoring the bigger picture of why the Alpha was even there, Sam can see that it was all their work and he just happened to be the one who picked up the gun - of course symbolic for how hunters work with the BMoL anyway, like Ketch seeing himself as their razor blade for slitting throats and nothing more) but of course Mick now credits Sam and “his mum” with saving HIM and sorting out the mess by being competent, and he has learned from them far more than we’ve seen Sam develop as a result of working with them.

He’s got the dangled bait of the world without monsters to look forward to, and knows he just has to be the trigger finger however many more times, and it’ll be done. MICK has to think about it in many more directions, and has come to realise he’s on the front line, and it’s DANGEROUS, so he needs to be more adaptable and trained in ways other than extensive research. Sam and Dean are the best hunters in the world because they combine research and fighting, and have access to MoL research and a smaller library of their own to help them, which means they’d probably have held their own at Hunter Hogwarts as Mick’s classmates, and yet because of the specialisation, Mick comes out miles behind them.

(Actual Hogwarts taught practical skills right alongside the theoretical and academic, meaning the BMoL have a long way to go :P)

I don’t think this is going to go spectacularly well for Mick, BUT whether he survives the season or not, or ends up helping them or not, it’s interesting that he is developing and learning and wants to be more like them. They have a sort of siren call to other creatures/people - I mean just look at Cas and Crowley transforming after being in their presence. Mick being the character who is now obviously changing while Ketch is as bloodthirsty and awful as ever at this point says a lot more than anything else that Mick is being earmarked for positive development/change and realising the error of his ways because he wants to be more like a Winchester. (It could also be sort of sad/pathetic for him if he becomes a groupie but for now it looks like positive, because he still is very self-assured and in a position of power and not yet changing his overall goals for them, and also sees them as a resource)

(also if you were ever going to go on a hunt, you’d want Sam and Dean, top shelf hunters, to come with you and protect you :P)

Anyway Mick does sound a shade scared/frantic as he makes his request so we’ll see how that goes for him

-

Dean immediately like “He’s dead weight”

ominious :P

-

“These people have some serious knowledge” shown over Mick attempting to fit a very large box into a very small bag

I’m cackling

“You can’t learn this in a book: you put on a flannel, you pick up a gun…”

I’M CACKLING HARDER. Dean is made even more clearly the genre savvy character, aka parallel to Hayden in her short shorts.

-

Dean’s got a brightly lit door behind him, Sam a dark staircase heading up. The bright yellow railings remind me of 9x23

ominous pt 3 (pt 1 was the parallel in the opening)

-

“The better they are the better we are” - yeah, that’s definitely that speculation Sam was won over because he thought he could improve and change them for the better and make use of their resources and plans and not just surface level what he SAW but what he thought he could DO with what he saw. It’s earnest but it is also somewhat assuming he’s going to be a positive force of change and mould them, which when they’re so untrustworthy and all, makes me really nervous about hubris coming for Sam. Especially when he’s the last character to need an arc with hubris, except perhaps below Cas. :P

-

Again - “Mick held his own against the Alpha” - Sam crediting him with staying alive and maybe out-sneaking the Alpha but not exactly out-fighting him. Mick got thrown around and ended up not dying because the Alpha was more distracted with Sam as a known and more dangerous enemy in the room… Overselling Mick to make it sound like if he survived that… but he has no practical fighting skills and the whole point is cleverness won’t get you so far, and you need to learn to fight, which is what MICK is saying, so Sam’s misunderstanding there on a matter relating to Mick’s safety and skill level…

Mick heard Dean saying he could be killed and Dean saying “Good” about him complaining about hearing that - because no sugar coating and if you’re terrified for your life maybe you won’t be an idiot, and listen to them :P

He then tells Sam he’s babysitting Mick, which immediately makes me very worried for Mick because it puts Sam in a position of responsibility and of course narratively Mick is a very acceptable loss to demonstrate Sam’s playing with fire with this decision.

Of course Claire is around so she’s also going to be an innocent in the line of fire, again, for a decision that Sam and the BMoL will entirely get them involved in.

-

PFFT Mick is listening to that podcast that Sam mentioned in 12x07… Did Sam share it with him or do they have the same tastes? Obviously back in 12x07 Sam was lying and using the snobby intellectual content as a way to deflect Dean’s interest, not expecting in a million years Dean would want to listen, even just to have some noise in the car - obviously there’s always the chance Dean knew Sam was lying from the start (like when he knew Sam was working with the BMoL probably and was challenging him in the start of 12x15 about where his cases came from, again for content on Sam’s phone he was lying about) - anyway this time they apparently are listening to the very thing Sam used as his deflection and cover, which is pretty bloody ominous

So Dean complaining about the podcast has all its own connotations about lying and Dean complaining about it because it was something used to hold up a cover once - at HIS expense of being the dumb hunter who doesn’t care about history. So I’m guessing if he bitches about the history lesson Mick starts giving here about hunting monks (awesome) it’s not because he’s being portrayed as stupid by the writing, but he’s portraying HIMSELF as stupid in rebellion and anger at all this.

“In Europe everything’s old” pfft

-

Ohh dear, Sam’s been working with them how long and NOW he finally has to ask, wait, even the monsters who aren’t hurting anyone?

As it suddenly occurs to him, maybe they don’t have any harmless vampire buddies (since Benny is dead) but wait, the BMoL are turning their attention to werewolves, and there’s no werewolves in Britain because they killed them all, but GARTH.

Mick just raises his eyebrows like, okay, I’ll believe that when I see it. He’s been taught too much to give a monster the benefit of the doubt just because Sam and Dean said so.

-

So we had the Badger pub earlier, now the Wild Elk lodge - of course it’s a werewolf episode, so there’s a theme of the wildlife in the woods… *pauses to google the distrubution of badgers and laughs at how the American badger is all thin and fluffy instead of built like a terrifying tank on little tiny skittering legs like the badgers that make living here a bit interesting, if by interesting you mean terrifying* (Yes I know they’re not even knee high, have you ever been charged by one on a dark night?) Anyway, whatever badger they were thinking of, not as bad as a werewolf - the badger is lucky, and the elk is wild, with a pretty majestic picture, and of course it’s a super fancy hotel

-

Dean tosses the keys to Sam, and Sam fumbles them while trying to hold onto all the books from Mick. Probably not symbolic (filed under: “ominous” (pt.5))

-

Last night me and Mittens were laughing about how Mick wows them with the fanciest hotel in the area and was in a crappy motel when he was on his own.

-

This episode is now going down in infamy as the one where Dean was skinny dipping and we’d never see it in a million years

-

I like how he says they’ve “ruined” him - it’s not like they’ve never stayed in (suspiciously) fancy places before, but Dean’s in a sort of culture war here with their lifestyle vs being pampered by a rich sponsor. Of course he steals everything, and doesn’t play by the rules when taking a swim, and obviously is being unnecessary gross, still (I mean who knows, he probably DID pack more than enough boxers this time and went swimming in a spare pair, but when it’s time to tell Sam, he has to gross him out…)

Also 2 Glynn episodes in a row where Sam is openly revolted at the idea of Dean’s naked body.

better informed meta than I could ever write has already been written about how that frames Sam in relation to Dean as a sort of parental figure rather than peers (e.g. I’m pretty sure it’s a trope that groups of boys who are peers, either brothers & cousins etc, and/or friends, would skinny dip together in a totally non-sexual way in the sort of hazy summy nostalgia stories I generally associate skinny dipping with rather than “fancy hotel pool” where obviously it’s rude and transgressive no matter who you do it with or even if you’re alone, as Dean clearly was, to not get them kicked out :P)

-

Ooh werewolf cure. Plasma therapy - changing the bit that carries the blood, not the blood itself. I have no idea why I associate the lymphatic system with werewolves - if it was some pseudo science article speculating how it might work I read many moons ago, or if it’s just because it’s an “ly” word like “lycanthrope” :P

-

“Not going to give him the satisfaction” - Sam caught between both sides, knowing Dean’s secrets, but having clearly had a more Mick-aligned experience yet again, staying up reading, and of course Mick finishing Sam’s sentence about what the potential werewolf cure would have been.

-

LOL Mick uses “Buckingham” as an alias. Wow. Are you worried people won’t notice you’re British?

-

His methods get them access, which I think is really just an early victory for him - he IS very smart and quick thinking and obviously 12x14 showed he could keep up with Sam in that way… Beginner’s luck worries me :P Obviously whenever Cas starts hunting he has a ton of bad luck starting out - this is probably an 8x08 parallel in that way, with the “You were being bad everything” parallel right now of gaining information in an interview and dealing with grieving family.

-

LOL the mom apologises to them and Sam’s like “You have no reason to apologise after what you’ve been through” parallels to Mary and Sam much? I mean she was a parallel in regards to to Hayden and Ben anyway but now Sam’s borrowing her too

-

Oh no the mom thinks it’s a nightmare about what happened to her kids and she might just wake up and it’ll all be better… I’m sure Mary’s handling being dumped in a dystopian post-apocalyptic nightmare world just fine :P

-

*Sam and Dean recognise that Claire is Claire-ing via “smol, bad attitude”* - nice.

Wondering what the “big foot truthers” are and if they have a real part in this - obviously a guy in the mask parallels Thinman, too, as  well as of course the original internet episode, Hell House, with the ghostfacers and Tulpa instead of ghostfacers and ANOTHER monster of their own creation that got out of control on the internet :P I also immediately remembered 11x16 for some reason and how the mom felt like her story was being discredited that it got picked up and reported by hokey paranormal websites - which was how Sam and Dean found the case, but was seriously upsetting her.

-

“Oh, NO” Mick realising he’s going to have to set Sam and Dean on the girl to kill her, or at least, if this was the Great Mick n Ketch Roadtrip episode with no Sam n Dean it would be open and closed “welp she’s bitten, now you go kill her” - Sam, Mick’s way IN to this, has been like “the ones who don’t hurt anyone!!” already so Mick knows he’s reluctant. His own faith has been challenged by WAY more experienced hunters pointing out that not all werewolves are monsters in the metaphorical sense, and she’s also like, 18 and a girl with a grieving mother hovering around her, so this is going to be MESSY.

-

Oh he hated telling the mother that. Compassion despite… all this. A CHANCE.

-

And yeah, he lies about her being bitten - most likely he decides Sam and Dean will be too sensitive to deal with her because they are terrible at finishing the job (see also: Magda, and does THAT come out this episode, because it’s pretty likely Ketch was on the phone with Mick when describing how they couldn’t finish the job)… He can’t really DOUBT his “programming” so much he’d give her a chance, and anyway he knows Sam and Dean would approve of that method so it would be fine to bring it up.

-

Sam then failed to pick up the cue that it was Claire, that Dean immediately knew. Not sure if Sam’s just not got his head in the game, or if it’s obviously a point about Dean’s greater closeness to Claire and probably a deep dread of her hunting and getting hurt even though it’s what she wants to do and they’ve had to deal with that already before. If you’re always running worst case scenarios for her, then eventually you’ll be right :P

-

Heeey it’s a Gas n Sip! I hurt inside!!

(Have… Have Biggersons been gone since Edlund left? I can’t recall seeing more than a sign for one once… I can’t believe he took Biggersons with him in the divorce)

-

Claaaaire

She has the red Gas n Sip logo (there’s variations) and Cas is more likely to be associated with the blue… But it IS a Cas thing in GENERAL after his huge associations to it, so it’s nice he’s… sort of… watching over her, I guess.

She’s got a beat up car with fast food rubbish in it, and a shoebox full of cheap phones. Oh, you are well settled in.

Like Hayden, she’s lying to family about where she is and what she’s doing.

-

Okay Dean making fun of Claire with a fake call to wildlife services is the best thing since his impression of Rowena :P

-

He should do more weird voices. I love when he has fun.

-

I’m laughing so hard because I forgot in the last hour that I already reminded myself of the alcohol thing and then not only did I forget but MICK forgot and bought Claire a drink, and then Dean’s like DUDE THIS IS AMERICA WE DON’T LET GROWN ADULTS DRINK UNTIL THEY’RE LIKE NEARLY 30 and I was like what the hell she was EIGHTEEN TWO YEARS AGO

-

I’m with Mick here, let Claire have a beer. She’s surrounded by responsible adults who’d never let her hurt herself >.> Bah, I suppose they’d never let it happen on American TV… We already had Hayden underage drinking…

-

Can’t believe Dean watches Downton Abbey and loves it

-

Claire dealing with the downsides of being a smol blonde hunter on her own - grabby bartenders. Dean looks ready to kill a guy.

-

“Foreign exchange student” I do love outside beloved characters trying to figure out the plot from being back in the Winchesters’ orbit for the first time that year. For example Jody trying to deal with all the times Dean and now Mary come back from the dead.

(Jody, off-screen, still not over it since 12x06: “WOW”)

-

“Sam’s best friend. They’re like nerd soulmates” - just read Harry Potter already, you’ll love it. Even BOBBY read Harry Potter, sheesh.

I don’t think he’s jealous of the BFF angle - at least not in the way Sam gets jealous, mostly because Dean has been able to make actual BFFs all over the place, and there’s Cas and all… He’s way more balanced about this particular thing, and would probably love Sam to have actual BFFs of his own if they were GOOD BFFs and not really sketchy operatives from some weird secret organisation that once tortured Sam :P Which is the angle he’s playing up with his snarky criticism

-

Claire lying to THEM about Jody knowing and then deflecting about calling her, especially now she’s with professionals who will keep her safe so OBVIOUSLY Jody wouldn’t worry and be fine with it because c'mon, WINCHESTERS

yes I am aware this is the same reason Mick is happy going with them as I said earlier :p

-

Anyway Sam complains about road food, Dean defends it; again, mentions the Gas n Sip directly despite them not strictly knowing they “found” Claire at the Gas n Sip this time.

Claire and Cas parallels but also Dean defending living out of a Gas n Sip - metaphorically, but Cas LITERALLY did it.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that”

Pfft also Dean defending lifestyle choices connected to him and Cas… metaphoooor

-

“Go nuts, it’s on Harry Potter”

-

Oh dear, Harry Potter is going to go kill Hayden. Surpriiise.

Except I assume this goes terribly wrong.

the lethal injection imagery is particularly unsettling - she’s in hospital with a “condition” that’s changed her life dramatically and this ~doctor~ is coming in and deciding for her to kill her with an injection because he decides her quality of life is not worth living/that she’s a burden on society (because she will eat people’s hearts but shh metaphor) and so he’s just gonna kill her without even informing her about her ~condition~ or giving her any choices about it.

So yeah, he’s only resembling some of the worst and most prolific serial killers ever - those “angel of death” doctors, who can often get away with it for a LONG TIME because people don’t notice or don’t value the people they kill.

-

“I’m sorry” well he feels a little bad about it at least.

-

Oooh moon activating a werewolf. I FORGOT HOW FUN THAT IS. This show seriously hates the moon :P it’s such a classic image but it’s so hard to structure a procedural monster hunt around it apparently. It’s the sort of horror that’s intensely personal to the one transforming or else the people in close proximity to them, depending on the metaphor. I suppose Bitten is the only other werewolf episode that could have realistically played with that because of the unusual framing, but it was expressly about CHANGING the werewolf lore to make it EASIER to write, so had to ditch this imagery anyway.

Also - new wolf eyes instead of the old contacts, these are more obviously CG and glowing and yellow, which is brilliant, and I approve.

I guess the moon touching her and her transforming is also the age old coming of age/puberty image for a female character (and female werewolves and the moon should be such a bigger thing but I suppose that would freak men out so no wonder I can’t think of mainstream female werewolves :P)

-

Buuut then Mick immediately injects her and oh no, life cut short just as it began :<

At least she scratched him up a bit in the process.. never managed to bite him. Boo. Give him a REAL reason to re-think all this

-

Nooo she died.

-

Pfft I guess Mick’s redemption will be via death then because that’s put narrative karma firmly against him, no matter how much he may change his mind as he’s being hinted to do.

-

THIS is great framing to make him look tiny, by putting Claire in the foreground:

“Hobbits” pfft

-

So now all the PROFESSIONAL HUNTERS know she was a werewolf because the doctor points out she’s completely healed, so Mick just… missed her bite? BAD INTEL

“… Right Mick?”

Dean doing exactly what he threatened to do and actually being directly and instantly skeptical of their benefactor.

-

And Mick puts it down to a mistake, just like all the other bad intel they had… Awfully blurry what WAS a mistake and what wasn’t

Like, they almost certainly knew about Ramiel, with this much hindsight of ~mistakes~ and bad intel.

-

Dean says he’ll take Mick and Sam will take Claire, but he and Claire storm out together because they’re, well, peas in a pod. It’s adorable. I love them. Also it leaves Sam and Mick to stare ruefully at dead Hayden.

-

But then Claire is in Sam’s trust now.

-

I think the bar is going to be a dead end and it will be someone Hayden knew, because of the silly teenage werewolf in a mask from the cold open :P Also Claire needs to be in peril, but Dean going fruitlessly to bars with someone he needs to talk to/suss out is a Thing

-

Claire is Dean - she said “awesome” and “dude” in the same breath, while telling Sam how she is. She also drove Sam there, and has her own plan and is telling him to stay behind.

He is firmly NOT in the fatherhood bracket to her.

-

Anyway Claire plays to her age, with her hair like that, and her headphones she puts on just as an accessory. Sam gets told he’s old to his face, which is something Dean passed through in the last couple of years, but now Sam’s there :P I already reblogged the gifset of this paralleled to the similar moment of Dean dealing with hunting with Charlie in 8x20 and her music and getting told he was old, and basically doing this 4 years ago, which, conveniently, is his and Sam’s age gap.

-

Mick struggling to open the door with the American flag in the corner, mostly because he fucked up. LOL. He’s been struggling to get through that door all season.

-

Oh great, the grabby tribal tat guy is the “Bae” that Hayden was seeing - obviously older than her, was gross to Claire, the same age as her, and this reminds me of 10x20 and how Dean smacked that guy’s head into the table for calling Claire a bitch and TO BE HONEST I get the feeling we’re about to find out that was not exactly Mark of Cain behaviour but protective Dad Dean behaviour :P

-

Dean is being super rude to Connor and defensive of Hayden aka the parallel to his daughter, Claire… heh

-

Dean accidentally-deliberately interrogates Mick at the exact same time as Connor and I am overwhelmed with love for him because he is brilliant okay

-

*Dean smiles until Mick admits to watching The Great British Bake Off*

Mary Berry would be ASHAMED of you, sir. Using her to lie like that! TUT TUT

*Sue and Mel closing in with various baking implements to enact their revenge on Mick’s treachery*

-

… see now I just want this to end with Sue Perkins showing up in a swish suit and kicking the snot out of Mick and I know there’s some wish fulfilment you just have to let go but it’s still going to hurt not to get

-

Oh my god Dean now following up the Claire thing

“what are you, her dad?”

Uh, well.

-

Basically yeah, I would assume, after that threat :P

-

God I love how Dean and Cas are just her dads and that’s a thing.

-

Mick wandering around in his beige coat just lampshades how WRONG this all is

-

I can not BELIEVE right after typing that Dean clamped his hand down on Mick’s shoulder and gripped it tight

(to make him say “ow ow ow ow ow ow ow” and reveal his lies and falseness)

-

I can’t WAIT to reblog a gifset of that and just tag it with “Dean’s elbow fetish for ts” with no explanation on the reblog.

I mean DAMN that’s a dark and horrible mirror… I suppose also Cas has a mercy-related story this season with Kelly and the nephilim, and he already learned his first lesson about mercy in 12x10, and took it with better grace (snerk) than Mick has here. I mean Mick has narratively fucked up into not coming back from this land, but Cas obviously has a longer game and has already softened and changed his position WITHOUT fucking up to learn it, or at least, only being tangentially connected to a historical fuck up, where it was very very easy to blame Ishim for everything :P

-

But yeah, Dean and Cas keep each other in check and the shoulder grab is their thing - now Dean uses it to expose lies and treachery on a dark Cas mirror, with that ~sacred~ touch of theirs being used to reveal the truth. Dean is like, on the side of Truth and Justice this season…

I don’t think this necessarily means anything bad for Cas because he and Dean are in such a good place - rather it’s using the example of Cas as a perfect GOOD person to show how terrible Mick is… Like I said about the Gas n Sip sign looking down on Claire, Cas is sort of all over the place here, and right now it’s in Dean’s use of that goodness in his life to expose the badness.

-

“I did what needed to be done” Oh hello thing people say when they done fucked up and know it. Last said by the guy in Red Meat who thought he’d killed Sam for the greater good of saving his own ass and his girlfriend’s ass.

I think werewolf episodes are still connected to that same thread of thematic stuff that turned up the Mark of Cain arc, because 8x04 set up so much thematic imagery for it, it’s ridiculous, and of course that “did what had to be done” was a key phrase of season 9 - said so often in some episodes you’d die on the drinking game of it :P

-

“she attacked me” PFFT BECAUSE YOU WERE A STRANGE MAN IN HER ROOM WHO WANTED TO KILL HER

“I had orders!”  
“You had a choice!”

Hello there Cas mirror from season 4 just like we all predicted back at the start of the season (okay, in some cases, about Toni, before she was shipped off and Mick replaced her - but SOMEONE in this organisation was gonna get to this point at some point this season :P)

But he made a bad choice and chose to lie and go behind their backs instead of questioning, thinking and talking. Obviously Mick has a ton of missing footage compared to Cas in season 4 - 4x16 is where HE began SERIOUSLY questioning and following his doubts through and Mick’s just not put in the same effort, and already fucked up where Cas had not.

-

Ooooh low blow then Mick brings up how Dean pals around with witches and demons - a witch who has saved their butts several times now, WILLINGLY, most recently in Glynn’s last episode… And a demon who, well.

-

Mick tells Dean to do his job, Dean explains how it’s not black and white - and how Magda is an example, and Mick is like… yeah we have a code… and doesn’t tell Dean what Ketch did.

I hurt inside :P

-

VENGEANCE FOR MAGDA

-

Also this has abruptly made me wonder if Mick is even part-way redeemable despite his interest in learning just because of his stance in the argument and not telling Dean about Magda… There COULD be a more nuanced sort of thing where he’s judged for being the passive evil that authorises such killings as Magda’s, like the people in government positions who do the evil of the government in a way where the blood is never on their hands literally, only figuratively… it really depends on if Mick REALISES what this ideology will do in the end, but he’s keeping this secret for now and it’s been made clear where he is in relation not just to killing Hayden, but all the awful the BMoL do

like if he killed Hayden but then immediately regretted it instead of sticking his ground, then he could have had a teachable moment (pfft) and because of regretting the blood spilled of his OWN people he was at least somewhat potentially sympathetic at the start of this >.>

-

Claire goes and gets basically the same info as Dean did so I’m assuming creepy Connor is the werewolf just because he’s the only character left with any connection to the MotW stuff :P

-

The parallel from the cold open switches around though - now Hayden is in too deep getting let into the bar on the down low by a guy who likes her and I guess wants to add her to his collection in the same creepy way the BMoL want to collect top shelf hunters… Got Sam on the hook, but the older brother is concerned and goes along to check on her and save her, and she’s only doing this because she’s bored and stifled and wants another life from the one she has… Her brother gets his heart ripped out for the trouble of protecting her >.>

(I think both the readings work it’s just the episode does swap it around with this reveal that Ben went to protect her specifically, but he had no idea it was a werewolf, he just wanted to take her home away from the creepy older guy)

-

Oops, now Claire’s lying is caught out. By Sam! Who is NOT ratting her out to Jody but letting her maintain that lie I guess while he feels Claire is under his protection so he doesn’t need to worry Jody about it.

… Although makes you wonder from Jody’s POV what exactly is going on when Sam phones her out of the blue to ask about Claire.

“… just wondering … for no reason…”

-

Oh no Claire :< She just wants to be alone because no one gets hurt and everyone’s happy if she’s not a burden on the-e-emmmmm *beats fists on the floor*

Do you think that you can catch the morbs from having been possessed by someone with them :P She sounds like Cas, at least, last year, although who knows, maybe this is a parallel to how he feels about why he popped back to Heaven, because he’s depressed and it doesn’t always make sense why he would feel like a burden or that people want him to be something he’s not (Dean just wants him to be THERE) but Cas probably still feels bad he fucked up that vampire hunt, and now Claire is alone and hunting and miserable, and… She’s probably paralleling Mary and Cas tbh.

Owie ow ow.

Because Mary also feels like her family wants her to be something she doesn’t feel like she can be. And also they were very precious with her to start with (12x03 she had a lot of better reasons to leave but I think she felt enormously stifled on the hunt)… Argh.

-

Sam sucks at talking to The Youth btw.

I find it quite ironic I watched 8x18 at some point in the middle of this and Victor makes a point of asking if Sam had kids or wanted them, and Sam’s a bit like, no and eeeh in response, because, well, it’s post-Amelia break up for him and it hurts and normal life is for people who shut the gates of hell and survive to tell the tale, really. But anyway. Yeah. Dean is effortlessly fatherly to Krissy or Claire; Sam struggles, and is surprised to be considered old, I think because he’s still somehow got the backpack he had in season 1 that makes him look like a 10 year old schoolboy when he shoulders it, and in some ways he’s never managed to get to the mature adult stage. Like, he needs to have genuinely lived it to absorb it into his personality, and he got as far as wanting to propose to a college girlfriend, or wanting to move in with Amelia and have a dog… He’s never had a kid forced on him or someone he adopted… Magda was the first kid he’d potentially adopt HIMSELF for the entire show I think, and he still related to her directly; some part of him still resonates with the lost hurt child phase of life… I mean, watching season 8 and 12 concurrent, as I’m accidentally doing, we’ve got Sam wanting to shut the gates of hell and go live a normal life, and Sam wanting to rid the world of monsters and live a normal life. In both cases he’s got this big hurdle before he grows up and completes any life stages I suppose.

Dean’s sort of unintentionally matured on the fly, so he’s still got an adorable childlike layer of his personality, but he also falls into being a father more naturally, and at the very least, something awoken by thinking Ben might be his back in season 3 for an episode, and having to think of him that way may have… idk flipped some levers or something. Sam’s busy having it all ripped away and putting up big walls that need to be overcome before he can rebuild. Dean lost everything so young he’s re-made his life within the framework of being who he is, and endgoals that fix everything don’t mean as much to him - which goes right back to that conversation in 1x16 where Dean thought killing Azazel would bring the family back together to hunt, and Sam thought it meant he could go back to college and be a person again.

-

*Claire stomping off listening to music and shutting out the world* I bet she’s not going to get grabbed when she walks through this patch of trees or anything

-

Wow she got attacked while walking through the patch of trees wow

(this is a totally muted reaction because I screamed “CLAAAAAAAAAAIRE” into Mittens’ chat box with barely any context :P)

-

She did seem like she has learned to fight a little, but the werewolf just totally overpowered her :<

-

TBH I think she’s probably close to normal hunter level - I mean Garth got bitten, and most hunters aren’t crazily OP and used to fighting demons with nothing but a tea towel like Dean

-

I hope no one’s complaining about her being useless or deserving that… I think we’re spoiled by Sam and Dean

-

SAM HUGGING CLAAAAAAAAAIRE

-

SAM BEING DONE WITH MIIIICK

I’m glad it was that easy after all and they didn’t keep a load of secrets or make it hard. Killing kids is the line and Mick crossed it, and Dean told Sam, and Sam is like, yep, okay, bye bye Mick.

-

Google: How to extract mom from BMoL now

-

Google: How to un-werewolf my ward before my angel finds out

-

I am not handling Dean’s face in this scene

-

Dean’s trying so hard. He looks.. argh

“Maybe some people can control this. But I can barely keep it together on a good day.” Aka she already is angry and lashes out and runs off etc and that’s not exactly got better from having a sort of stable life with Jody… So now she’s a werewolf she’s terrified of what she’d do to them with extra violence in her, and she loves Alex and Jody so much she doesn’t WANT to be near them…

So yep, now we have the Madison dilemma back >.> “I’d rather die.”

-

But this time Mick mentioned an old cure that doesn’t work

-

Google: how has werewolf medical knowledge improved since the 1920s?

-

Ouch, 1/9 test subjects was cured. That’s considerably worse odds than Dean had with the vampire cure - the Campbell recipe clearly described of the test subjects, one died and one lived.

It seems to work every time now so I assume they’ve refined the recipe a bit. Like, longer fever, but less chance of puking your guts up to death, because in 6x05 it happened quick and horrible but by 9x19 Alex is moaning and feverish and says she’s been throwing up but is obviously having a slower recovery than Dean, but in a sense a long fever is much less violent and therefore easier to bear.

-

Oh, nope, that was mice (WEREWOLF MICE AAW) - we have one dead human, and Claire saying “second time’s the charm” - same odds, with ominous test data behind it.

-

“It’s my life. I get all the votes.”

“It’s her life”

Sam might not be great at the truth but he’s always there for bodily autonomy.

-

Dean puts the fear of God into Mick and by that I mean fear of himself :P

-

Pfft the Lucky Badger has a huge “No under 21s” sign on the door which I don’t think has been clear until now.

I find it somewhat surreal that a 20 year old is being treated as a minor and child but I suppose it’s the law over there >.>

-

I suppose Mick buying her a beer was a real sign of the culture clash which also is symbolic of him just not getting how it works.

-

I LOVE they use a shot of the lurking Impala before they stalk Connor

-

OH NO He was just a jerk… who totally deserved that.

Now what???

There’s like no leads to follow??? Maybe lurk in the woods and see if a weird man in a mask is around??

-

Meanwhile: high drama with Claire transforming and challenging Mick to kill her

AAAAAAH

-

Oh good he didn’t kill her. >.> well if he learned his lesson it’s too late for both him and the Winchesters and the whole mission.

And they’d better phone Mary as soon as this is over, like, get the hell over here and never answer your phone to them again

-

Pfft sedating and restraining her for his protection. Mick’s really not very brave, and his methods are repeatedly showing his weaknesses, mostly because of his priorities.

Like, he thinks, I’m not as bad as Ketch but I’m still a coward and you’re a scary monster

-

Oh no Claire being sad about not telling Jodyyyy and she’s going to be so maaad

She loves Jody and Alex so much… this is killing me :(

-

AAAH MASK GUY

AAAH is that the OTHER douchey bartender? :P

-

“You can kill me later, after we find Claire” in a way, knowing you’ve fucked up THIS badly is somehow liberating :P

-

Ahaha, “Eat me, Teen Wolf” has that show ever been referenced here before?

-

LOL it’s the “the apocalypse made me do it” excuse for an episode - same as the ghoulpires in 11x04 being like “welp the Darkness is coming we’re all doomed” draws attention. Now this dick is like “Mary and Ketch murdered everyone I love and so I’m hurting people” which means the BMoL are the bad guys on BOTH sides of the equation.

-

“We weren’t meant to live like this. A werewolf needs its pack” family stronger together message again, if very dark here

Sometimes monsters have a weird line on the truth - the vamps in 1x20 who talked about how revenge wasn’t worth it

-

Hahaha Claire calling out “nice guys”

-

Nooo, don’t eat, Claire

-

“I have a family and they love me” AAH CLAIRE

It’s like Cas’s declaration in 12x12!! except no one hears it but here come Sam and Dean to save her!

(And Mick)

-

Uhoh Dean’s got to fight Claire… this is not going to look good on his fight resume

-

oh nope, he did just knock her out via throwing her into the fridge

sometimes you have just got to deal with a problem, apologise, and move on :P

-

Yay Mick killed himself a monster

-

Now fix Claire pls.

-

She’s very snarly still *looks dubious*

-

Oh noooo

-

OH YAY

-

I hope Dean went out to pray to Cas btw

-

She would make waking up with a face covered in blood look like a disney princess awakening

-

Why are they giving Mick a second chaaaance? Is this because he helped Claire? This is because they don’t know about Magda because that was the second chance and this episode has made it suuuuper clear >.>

-

I mean THEY give him a second chance but to us and the story I think it’s pretty clear Mick might help them at some point but he’s on borrowed time and about the only way he could survive this now is if he, like, personally murders Ketch for them, although I’m not sure that will happen because Ketch and Dean seem destined for a reckoning, which to me means that Mick will probably get killed by Ketch and then Dean will kill Ketch and *invokes the entire Hmmmm whatcha say meme*

-

ANYWAY EVERYONE LOVES CLAIRE AND CLAIRE LOVES EVERYONE AND SHE CALLED JODY HER MOTHER AND THAT’S IT I’M DONE

*lies on the floor and weeps*


	17. 12x17

(Finally :P)

expectations - well, I had pretty low ones before this episode came out but while I was mucking around waiting for it to become available through some channel or another, a couple of people have expressed actual excitement to me about it so now I’m confused, especially as they didn’t offer any qualifiers about that, aside from that the Crowley and Lucifer stuff would be pretty boring, which was a lesser problem on my list of things to worry about.

Let’s see what happens :P

-

The recap starts with the Crowley and Lucifer stuff. Yay.

Blah blah Dagon and Kelly… EILEEN HI

-

Okay interesting BMoL recap - starting with Mick and his character development so far, then sliding over to Ketch, punchy punchy Mary hitting things in time with him. So they’re linked (see also: gloomy expectations :P) and actually doesn’t tell us anything else about Mary in that moment, but keeps on recapping Sam and Dean’s issues with the BMoL - Mary’s been swallowed up into them.

-

Kendricks! With their creepy motto about being stronger together. Which is I guess what Sam accidentally echoed about the better the MoL are the better they are

(Mittens just told me the crossed keys on there are a symbol of heaven too which *anvils*

-

It is never a good sign when you’re called into an office and they put plastic sheeting down. I guess one of these kids isn’t coming out alive… I don’t think they’ve said names yet but I think the pale dark haired one is Mick because duh

odds are they make him murder his friend for shits and giggles

I can’t visuale “Michael” being Mick because that name just doesn’t fit :P Also anvils again the whole Michael thing - we had his lance not too long ago. He’s LURKING.

-

LOL the Headmistress pauses with horns behind her head. Not ominous about her being evil at aaaall.

-

LOL they are Michael and Lucifer parallels

And Michael wins. Obviously. Since we know Mick kinda makes it out of there. :P

-

So Headmistress with her codes is God, Mick actually wins the damn fight which is NOT good because the only other repetition of the entire cycle to win the fight was Cain and that ended *so well* for him.

All the Cas mirroring just got blown out of the water though. I guess he now gets to carry the weirdly dubious honour of dealing with the Michael mirroring… Michael who would not back down from the apocalypse because God Said So and he was going to be a good son and do what was destined of him, no matter if it meant killing his brother. Of course we’ve had that exact conflict remembered earlier this season with Ramiel musing on how Michael made his spear to kill Lucifer slowly and painfully. Cain mirrored down the line to Dean - Mick mirrors back up to it Michael. Interesting that they want to address this again even just thematically with parallels like this… I’m so not convinced ever at any point that Michael will actually come back, if nothing than for the show to dig in its heels and enjoy the “You forgot Adam” jokes to the end of time, but Michael IS a loose end narratively in that he’s so heavily NOT been involved in the story again, and carries a real, terrifying weight that Lucifer does not, and tbh never really did, since he popped up in 5x01 all like hey I’m the villain, but Michael had a much more insidious awfulness to him… And with 2 appearances ever, remains far more mysterious and powerful in the story than the now over-blown cartoon villain Lucifer’s been since, well, honestly, season 7, though obviously Hallucifer was not meant to be the real deal…

Anyway I should maybe not take forever to watch the thing because I always do and I started so late thanks to download links being terrible >.>

-

Wait

Mick is alone and drinking in the office at the BMoL compound remembering all this (yay alcoholism all of a sudden out of nowhere - he really has utterly switched gears to the Michael-Cain-Dean thread)

and now Sam n Dean are driving off to meet him

when the hell was the promo scene and was it even in this episode :P

-

EILEEN IMMEDIATELY

Yesssssss

I am immediately also upset that she loves Sam so much but doesn’t tell him to not let Dean talk to her while he’s driving if it means he has to keep looking down at the ipad to make it clear what he’s saying to her >.> EYES ON THE ROAD. Sam’s no good to you dead.

-

I am mostly admiring Eileen’s hair because Kelly stuff is like… okay.

-

Aw she said goodbye to Sam specially. My heart.

-

Dean thinks it’s cute too.

Sam’s like “come on” oh god he’s in love too.

Sammy, this is how it feels to be in the hot seat when people mock you for having an adorable crush. Leap behind denial and pretending there was nothing special about that “bye Sam” :3

And you should know you’ve seen it happen to Dean enough :P

-

Dean ships it.

And he always knows what’s true and good :3

-

“He stole my line” says Crowley somewhere or other. I love how Dean was literally just saying not to call Crowley, and there’s Mick in the library with the whiskey, “hello boys” and suuuuper ominous music, because he just let himself in. Does he know about Kelly? Sam and Dean are coordinating all the other hunters they know on this, but it’s their resources. And they actually have other hunters they know and trust and are good, working with them.

And of course, the whole thing with the BMoL imposing on them - no privacy, the keys giving him full access to their lives, and, I think, assuming in a way they’re their superiors because Sam n Dean are hunters, but Mick has the desk job and the education…

-

Sam and Dean present a united front stomping towards Mick, who has come to hang out. Now HE is on the case of Kelly, and of course it comes out that they were keeping it a secret…

Mick mentions cosmic shockwave but it’s not Cas’s cosmic consequences. I think we need to limit the word cosmic to one per season relevant things.

Anyway as with 12x14 showing the BMoL are playing on their stage but are tragically behind and under informed. I was recently musing on if they had the same technology as a start point as the Bunker and that detected the angel fall, they would have obviously a lot more time to develop it and would have equipment sensitive enough to detect all sorts of big events (I was wondering about the seals breaking in that context, but a Nephilim being conceived counts)

Now I have to listen to Dean recapping 12x08…

I feel like I should just leave a blank space for watching them arguing about killing Kelly or making her get an abortion. Just because… Buckleming, no, why are you even handling this subject. Why.

Mick takes the far more hardline approach that they should have killed her, but I mean, Sam and Dean start from the point of, we thought she agreed to get an abortion (are you not allowed to say abortion on American TV?)

-

I do love Sam and Dean sitting on the table side by side like this KNOWING they’re like, the most intimidating men Mick will ever meet and if they play up the double act, he’s so much more likely to crack from the pressure :’)

This is rapidly turning into Buckleming’s favourite trope of Sam n Dean judging you together, which I can’t remember how often they do it but it is a Thing and 9x21 is not the only example though it’s the only one I can think of, and none of the other writers ever make them do exactly this.

I think part of why it stands out to me is just because while Sam n Dean are great and can be united against a mock-worthy foe, they actually aren’t usually *united* and even when things are great, they play to their strengths, but often moments of unity highlight their differences, especially current conflicts or whatever. Moments of inward reflection occur and so on.

Here, they’re just a block on this table which says “exposition: Winchester POV” while Mick is over there like “exposition: drop more anvils” (he just called the nephilim an “abomination” out of the blue)

-

“Until then, we drink” - I think Dean is distracting Mick more than anything - he already showed up in the Bunker, drinking, and Dean knows they have a lead thanks to Eileen. If they can get Mick trashed, who knows, maybe he’ll forget, maybe this will all seem less urgent in the morning, maybe he can be reasoned with differently when the plan is he has the hangover and Dean is doing dishes noisily in the kitchen, if, you know, Mick had not out-drunk them

-

wait why is Lucifer back in that chair - did Buckleming literally not watch 12x15? It’s so pointless to chain him up… he should be like, sitting in the corner of Crowley’s room or whatever, LOOKING free and suffering.

The fact you could fade out from 12x13 and into 12x16 for the Lucifer stuff makes me think that Perez did the best he could and bless his cotton socks but you just can’t un-fuck Buckleming writing when they’re on a roll, because if they think Lucifer should be chained up in this chair like they wanted him, then here he is.

I mean aside from anything it’s yet more complete disrespect for canon - that they clearly didn’t do any homework for 12x13 because holy crap the Gavin stuff was badly handled, and that was their own story so you’d think they’d know how follow on from their OWN writing - and now they’re not even playing ball with the other writers on current stuff >.>

As I said in an ask I answered a little before this episode, they have their own canon running adjacent to main canon, where all their mad plot stuff happens, and everyone else just has to deal with it as a sort of weird fever dream that happens in the background of the Winchesters’ lives. You can’t reason with it when they aren’t listening. Or they just do not understand the point of what someone else wrote.

-

Anyway I guess Dagon feels like she failed Lucifer over something or other, which makes her a kid desperately trying to prove herself to her father.

Sounds ominous about Kelly “lasting” and that the pregnancy will probably include all sorts of body horror and then kill her - I suppose more burning up like the vessels or something in that vein.

So I suppose now we have the whole do you let the baby get born at the expense of the mother dying stuff - I really really hope this is not some wacky anti-abortion message but actually makes this look WRONG. I mean you’d think Lucifer and a trusted underling not valuing the mother over the baby would be a good start that this is a bad POV on abortion because it’s again choosing for the mother what’s “best” and which life to value more, but, well.

I also just don’t trust the writers because the message was so bad in 12x08 with all the men arguing over what to do about her baby and Kelly’s characterisation to not even consider abortion seriously despite having a baby from rape, before we even get into the ethical horror show of what it may or may not be intentionally saying about aborting babies with problems you just don’t think you can deal with as a parent regardless of their potential

I mean fucking hell can we just not have this story arc?

-

Wait if we’re having more Mick flashbacks did he actually kill his friend or are we just wallowing on this

I can’t tell with these writers if I should expect a plot twist or just over-writing :P

-

the Headmistress has a chessboard in front of her, currently all set up and not played. But in the actual game, her chess pieces are all over the board. Does she think she has them in neat lines, but they’re actually running everywhere?

Who knows - Mick tries to complain he’s still cleaning up after Toni’s mess while the Headmistress thinks that they’re hopeless because Toni said so. She doesn’t want chess pieces she can’t get neatly in line.

Not how the game works, ma'am

-

She seems to think so - “assimilate or eliminate” - she really does not understand the Winchesters and their role in the whole… cosmic order. You work around them, or with them, not over them. :P

-

Blah blah Kelly and Dagon - Dagon doing the bare minimum to keep Kelly alive while off the radar of everyone looking for her, clearly not caring about Kelly… Kelly demands to see a doctor because of course we need her to make stupid decisions.

I bet the baby has like, little horns and a pitchfork in there and the weird pains are because it’s poking the inside of her tummy with the pitchfork.

Cackling comes over the ultrasound, somehow.

Also, better odds the doctor is randomly an angel, maybe because they’ve possessed every single doctor in the country waiting for Kelly to drop by because she wants pics of Satan jr to share on Facebook to make all her schoolfriends jealous.

-

The hangover scene - Sam and Dean have their sleeves rolled the exact same way. They really are still being a unified front. Of course, the whole table thing - they’re in their rightful places while confronting a cheery Mick hanging out in their kitchen. Last interloper to do that was God.

-

Of course this implies that Sam and Dean keep the resources to make Bloody Marys in their fridge in the first place.

Which is completely and utterly horrifying, that Mick comes in right as they’re asking each other about Mary, and makes himself a Bloody Mary.

-

Binge drinking: a national sport and we’re GOOD at it

-

I am disappointed that Dagon did not just roll with the fake relationship thing because that would have been hilarious and maybe actually made me interested in the character dynamics going on here. She’s not exactly done anything to make her look like more than the standard standoffish demon with old school lucifer loyalties and not much interest in being nice except for what it gets her. Of course there’s a Meg vibe going on but like… without all the oozing charisma and personality that in Meg 2.0 was just in one eyebrow all the time. I mean, she could just stand there and eyebrow slightly and… gah, Rachel Miner just has ridiculous stage presence :P I don’t DISLIKE Dagon but she’s trapped in this writing and has no room to do anything fun or challenging.

-

I just took a little break to come up with a much better way to write this story with Mittens, and we’ve concluded if Kelly’s not going to be HORRIFIED by what’s happening inside her, she should be intentionally stoned out of her mind with nephilim baby brain, which Dagon has to deal with like “UGH” and long story short, she has to throw Kelly a baby shower to keep her happy and they sit there crocheting booties together and AGAIN would give us real character dynamics - Kelly wavering between “what’s happening to me?” and wandering around their dilapidated hide out of the week wondering where to put the nursery while singing to herself, and Dagon grinding her teeth and helping Kelly pick out names all sweetly :P

-

I just want these poor actresses to have something real to work with

-

Can’t see horns on the nephilim

-

oh well

-

*slowly decays on my chair into a neat little pile of dust while Crowley is being boring with Lucifer* I was just watching 9x02 before this, and Crowley chained up in the dungeon there, playing Kevin for all its worth, and oh my god that was excellent writing

boring

… I do not remember typing that

Oh, Michael reference. Cool. Cool cool cool. Nothing new about him, but with his presence in the narrative I have to wonder if Lucifer is lying or exaggerating.

-

Giving Crowley what he “wants” in order to make him bored or unsatisfied or whatever Lucifer seems to be playing with seems to go back to a much less interesting version of Crowley than the one who seemed to have a lot more fun torturing Lucifer in 12x15 with a genuinely clever way to BREAK him but oh well

the “you win” obviously is really fake and Lucifer attempting to manipuate Crowley while under his control and ugh Crowley does it so much better. He broke Kevin in like 3 lines of dialogue

-

Ooh Mary

She has a bigass gun - ha, as I was typing that she added another attachment and made it bigger

-

I suppose that’s not a metaphor about their relationship - “I’ve learned not to argue”

-

“Major in murder, minor in mayhem?” okay we’ve switched to whichever of Buckner and Ross-Leming is the quippy one :P I like these lines, to be clear. Mary is fun. Mary and Ketch fascinates me, if you didn’t notice me writing a 6k fic where they were married in the aftermath of the world without monsters :P

-

Oh my god is she actually going to talk about her life with Ketch? I was hoping nearer the start of the season she’d open up to Cas but obviously that would be too positive for the both of them. And now it’s part of Ketch seducing her, so I’m gonna cut off that thought right here, since it would have been for sweet family reasons with Cas but sooo not where it’s going here :P

She’s wearing the same shirt with the XOXOX pattern from 12x02 and we can see the chain with the ring on but it’s not really obvious the ring is there

-

Oh NOW we can see the ring, after the “Mrs Winchester, I believe you’re drawn to danger” line and the camera changes to a wider shot and you can see the ring finally, like, they parted her plaid a little.

-

I kind of want to be more emo about Mary talking about her life, and I am in other contexts but this episode has exhausted me, so her laughing sadly about her quiet normal life not happening was kind of a non-moment to me >.> I suppose she’s sort of coming through to a state of acceptance if you apply the stages of grief, but she’s still dealing with it all wrong by not talking to her family - even Cas - but bonding with the worst possible character to bond with this season. I mean, c'mon, if she’d started hanging out with Crowley he’d have got weirdly attached in a non-creepy way and kind of hate himself for giving her honest girl talk advice :P

-

Mick can’t seem to move without ominous music following him

-

Pfft there’s another, worse Brit here now who is the Poshest and even drinking tea while he comes to chat with Mick. Mick being all rough and stubble-y and pointing a gun at him is immediately looking like a more relatable character in terms of what we’re asked to relate to with hunters and all - he’s picking up their mannerisms

-

The posh boy talks about another set of hands - NOT a Cas parallel or at least the worst freakin Cas parallel ever. I think in a way, if that line does mean anything, then the parallels to Heaven here, have Mick as the Cas here, and posh boy as the Establishment Cas is up against.

-

Oooh the blood is on the floor there next to Mick, but last episode Dean was standing directly on top of it so I missed that detail. Now it’s just casually in the frame with Mick, reminding us and I guess therefore telling us what’s on his mind. And, you know, showing us Mick framed with what was a huge pool of blood.

-

Okay I guess the guy who just murdered the doctor is a demon despite no eyes flashing because he didn’t use an angel blade and an angel might have been a bit more, sorry have to murder you hope you understand - no idea why he did that unless Dagon’s commanding some demons to clear up Kelly’s mess, knowing her little mind control thingy might not be permanent. Or Crowley also is looking for the nephilim on the side to pointlessly torturing Lucifer.

I mean without the eyes he could have just been a really proactive hunter or BMoL

-

Oh gosh no Dean’s on the phone to Cas, listening to his terrible voicemail. Help.

-

OH NO EILEEN’S HERE AND SHE’S SITTING IN THE ‘COME AND GET ME’ POSE

Sam you need to take her on that table right now

Dean will clear the heck out, he understands and thinks you’re cute together

-

I literally did not listen to a thing they said while screeching about that *rewinds for plot*

-

Also just the whole Cas n Dean thing on one side and Sam n Eileen in the other room

-

OH gosh they saved the demon reveal for Eileen having a badass fucking showdown with him both showing their cards with him doing the eyes, and her pulling out an ANGEL BLADE

I know they’re a lot cheaper in the current economy but I have to think Sam gave it to her from their spares pile, because of the Asa Fox thing on the one hand, that they ARE rare for hunters to best and angel in any way but also just this way it’s sweet

but oh boy the Cas/Dean Sam/Eileen stuff that happens when you show her pulling an angel blade

-

Ah, the demon did work for Dagon

-

(Which means Crowley is flagging in this race, if he’s even in it >.>)

-

But anyway Dean third-wheeling Sam and Eileen is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Sam is awkward and smiling! Eileen is gorgeous and smiling! Dean likes Eileen a lot with respect as a hunter (thinks it’s cool she stabbed a demon in the heart) but is totally cut out of the final moment where Sam and Eileen clink beer bottles, I mean, he just *vanishes*

and then I realise - this is how Sam feels all the time when he’s stuck in a scene with Dean and Cas :P

-

What is Crowley even doing

I suppose this scene is very blatantly illustrating how 2 stories can happen at once - Crowley thinks he’s showing ultimate dominance, and Lucifer is subverting it by using the words Crowley wants to hear for his own ends, with actual wink wink nod nod to how he’s the one saying how it will be. The demons are confused and hesitant about what they’re clapping for… Not entirely sure which power is ruling them and how it’s going to turn out for them - who do you support in this race? Crowley is the surface text, presenting what he thinks is obvious from the visuals. But Lucifer is the subtext, with his back turned to Crowley he’s free to convey what ever else he wants, even to the point of painting the exact opposite story to what’s going on

discord between surface and subtext.

-

Kelly seems to be genuinely trying to be totally normal about her pregnancy… is this denial?

-

Literally did not recognise Sam’s voice… I knew it had to be SOMEONE putting on a voice but what the heck Sam can ACT?

-

I mean I’m not complaining I love it but AAAH

-

Also me whenever Sam and Eileen are on screen together: hands over my mouth, eyes all big and anime shiny, faint squealing whistle escaping from between my fingers

-

Aw Mick no don’t ruin this party

-

Eileen: “no one cares” *continues making heart eyes at her* *sam sends heart eyes at her*

Oh god we’re all in love with Eileen, this is not going to end well, because I can’t fight Sam for her. I am smol and he will kill me.

-

Anyway more class struggle between the BMoL and hunters… they have files on them but think they have no training, despite the fact they survived. I mean, Eileen has made it as a deaf hunter. Can they not appreciate how fucking badass she must be? :P Learning on the job with live monsters means any hunter who makes it so far has not been killed by literally every “class” or “test” they ever had.

-

Blah blah Sam gets handed the colt while standing in the shadow of a bridge blah blah 1x21 parallels. In 1x21 they did not get the shot they wanted. Although Dean was handed the Colt by John (who Mick is now standing in for) and gave it to Sam before he didn’t make the shot. I wonder if Sam will give the gun to someone else.

(For no reason other than that she’s here, I’d love to see Eileen do it, although of course it would take away some narrative impact from a major character parallel. But I love her so)

-

Well that was an easy kidnap

Kelly really is not coming out of this well. I’m going to blame as much as I can on baby brain. She’s such a pawn in this narrative and it sucks on a grand scale.

-

*nyoom*

-

Is Dean just taking her straight to the others for them to maybe shoot her? I mean, what is the actual plan here

-

*Dean continues missing Cas out loud* *doesn’t care about this other guy who showed up instead*

-

Anyway a whole bunch of blokes are here to talk to Kelly about it, though she’s now too hugely preggers for take-backsies

-

Sam wants to help, Mick has the unsympathetic POV that the baby won’t even love Kelly because it’s a monster, Kelly actually gets to say out loud that she was used and is upset about the Lucifer thing (woah, a whole line of dialogue about it :P) and that she loves her baby anyway.

Blonde posh twat just wants to kill her immediately, which causes Dean to go into human shield mode to Kelly

-

Eileen’s just like, not everyone is looking directly at me, what is going on

-

*individual reaction shots for literally everyone being thrown around*

-

*everyone shoots Dagon pointlessly*

-

elizabethrobertajones  
has anyone talked about how Kelly looked when Dagon came to get her

mittensmorgul  
Not that I’ve seen… How did she look?

elizabethrobertajones  
she has such muted reactions to everything but in this case Dagon walks right up to her and Kelly says nothing but is leaning away reluctantly  
and then Dagon grabs her hand and pulls her  
and the shot of her being led off screen is like this defeated school kid who was caught going truant

mittensmorgul  
She knows she’s still being used…

elizabethrobertajones  
yeah  
NOW I feel sorry for her  
because she seems defeated and used and broken

mittensmorgul  
yeah.

elizabethrobertajones  
it’s just sucky they didn’t write her well enough before  
to build any of that up  
or like… actually make her look genuinely depressed and unwell

mittensmorgul  
yep  
they just made her seem like a flake

elizabethrobertajones  
that one little defeated kid being taken home moment where Dagon grabs her hand says EVERYTHING  
but they had like FOUR SCENES together already  
and I didn’t see this!!

-

YES Eileen has the Colt!!!! GO GO EILEEN

-

I guess she shoots british blonde dickhead instead because he was gonna shoot Kelly or something

-

Colt slow mo! It really does slow down the flow of time every time it’s shot.

-

Aw, crap, she shot the blonde loser instead but because Dagon did, well, the 1x21 thing, and we got to see how a Colt kills a human (which I ALWAYS wondered, because it can’t just make you sort of die normally from gunshot wounds - you have to, you know, DIE of a kill anything gun wound, so messy, quick and awful :P)

Anyway Eileen NOOOO you look so horrified :( I was just saying to Mittens her Cas mirroring piles on and I can’t even think what this is, just that she now feels like shit for things which aren’t her fault but she has this death on her conscience, and it didn’t even happen in defence of anyone, it was just he stood in the way like an idiot and Dagon didn’t feel like getting shot today and knew exactly what was happening because Eileen hesitated just long enough to let her disappear.

-

… Does Dean actually know the Colt is in play because UGH we were robbed of that reveal

-

MICK NO

EILEEN IS PRECIOUS AND THIS IS DEFINITELY CROSSING A LINE. YOU LEAVE HER THE FUCK ALONE

-

I guess the Code IS brainwashing, and this is again a Cas parallel - this would be a crypt scene kind of moment for him except that the cute love story is between Sam and Eileen, and Mick’s interloping on that with the brainwashedness and the whole… already killed his puppy because the Headmistress said so flashbacks, so what is random old hunter Eileen to do with anything, but even someone he openly disliked as much as whatsisface was a BMoL and should be defended

honestly he should remember Eileen’s being defended by 2 legacies and she herself is a legacy and I think if I remember correctly was raised by a hunter with connections to the Irish chapter?

-

We’re crossing over into the final 10 minutes of a Buckleming episode here

-

Sam argues for free will, which is a bit of a turn around when Dean’s right there (not that Sam isn’t about free will - they ARE Team Free Will after all, but Dean tends to lead the way on this while Sam has a much more interesting relationship with it for other reasons), but hey, it’s a Buckleming episode - themes can bounce around pretty wildly and get connected to anyone. :P Sam’s been all in the centre of attention and having a lot of big dramatic moments lately. Plus, crypt scene parallel and all, he had to talk the brainwashed person out of killing the one he loves so that at least the romance angle is in there somewhere. It’s like, one step removed from the original, but allows Sam to interject himself into the scene, without getting tangled up in crypt scene stuff himself (don’t think he’s ever really done more than a few cursory I know you’re in there moments, back and forth with being the one in there or the one saying it, which were MotW little things and not part of the big narrative, just the supporting mirrors :P).

Of course also parallels the subverted crypt scene, by the crypt scene obsessed director in 12x10, where again Ishim was used as an intermediary to break the back and forth-ing of the crypt scene repeats between Dean and Cas, and didn’t need a I know you’re in there, but again boiled it down simply to protecting a loved one in a particular framing playing off previous iterations (10x22, which was much more in the formula) - Sam gets this parallel where he can fight for his loved one without it being all twisted up and weird in possession that THEY have to deal with, just the attacker. So it looks nothing like the actual crypt scene, guy in a long tan coat and scruff trying to kill a loved one because brainwashing aside, but is still part of the organic growth of the way this subtext has gone.

-

Aaand Mary took off the ring. Do not want John to see this.

-

Ketch like, wow, I thought I’d just end up killing you. 

Charming. 

Flash some more of your excellent calves at her to make her forget you said that.

(I am personally offended by his calves as I made Mary practically gag over him having pallid calves in said fic where they were married. Dammit DHJ can you stop being amazing because I need to hate every aspect of your character down to his calves and you’re like, hi, I’m going to sit in this ridiculous pose now so you can see my calves are indeed the same colour as all the rest of me and not the garish calves of the man who wears a suit all year until you drag him to the beach)

-

Anyway Ketch is like blah blah thanks for giving up your family and throwing yourself into hunting and my bed with no strings attached, isn’t this grand, and Mary’s like, uh, I like my family and I want to have it all, hunting and family, and Ketch is like wow I just started to like you and now I really have to kill you and oh dear. 

Oh dearie dearie me.

Imminent attempt on her life by Ketch aside, I think Mary has a bit of a misunderstanding about hunting and family - 12x03 was them trying to show her how their life actually was, but she was too messed up to appreciate it and actually needed the space. But it was trying desperately to build a life where Mom comes along on hunts and that’s cool because we hunt and Mom hunts and she’s here, so… uh, this is what we do now. 

But instead Mary split off from them entirely - 12x06 showed she hunted in secret away from her family in the past, and kept the two completely partitioned - I think something Sam also has issues with although he had been more open to the idea of marrying someone in the life, said in a Robbie episode before the Robbie episode where Eileen showed up and uh hey guess who’s here right now… Uh, slightly sidetracked (slightly hit by a massive shipping container that is Sam and Eileen)… But yeah, Mary needs to reconcile that she has a hunting family, that that isn’t a bad thing, and the two things can coexist perfectly normally. They don’t NEED her to get rid of all the monsters and in a way she’s talking to Ketch about two life choices, to hunt and have a family, ignoring the detail that she and Ketch are on an extermination run against all monsters, so eventually there won’t BE hunting to define herself by so she won’t be able to have it all because one part will be over… and of course, the more she goes on like this, the more precarious it seems for the other part too. Dean’s worrying about not hearing from Mary although he’s making a bigger fuss about not hearing from Cas. And their arcs are paralleled, though to obviously different ends that Cas is romantically estranged from Dean and Mary’s estranged from being his mom.

-

Blah blah Lucifer, he’s shirtless, exposition is still happening, Crowley’s found himself a hacker to crack the spells on him. he just made it out of this scene but I suppose next Buckleming episode he’s queued for untimely death of a black guy.

-

Him leaving and the sounds of the Bunker door overlap nicely.

-

Eileen <3

-

(She hasn’t done anything yet, she just looks sad)

-

Sam and Dean agree with me. Dean says nice things, and then Sam gently touches her shoulder (I am officially, like, noped out of these DeanCas parallels I just can’t) and turns her around and signs to her and and he’s touchign her hairrrrr and aannanodsigrdoh epjddpawhtiwoeugipeow[pe[wkgo[rdf

-

I’m all overcome with emotions about Sam touching her hair all gently and her weeping into his chest and I can’t deal with Kelly and Dagon scenes immediately after. Now Kelly really is the scolded child who tried to run away, and Dagon is showing Kelly FINALLY that she only cares about the baby in no uncertain terms (it seemed fairly obvious in their first scene but I guess it just wasn’t obvious enough to Kelly, who has the worst case of baby brain ever, which I always thought was a thing where you put the kettle back in the fridge after you made tea or something, not trusting a Prince of Hell with your unborn nephilim baby and your own life)

-

okay now Kelly has a nearly appropriate horror level to what’s going on with her baby

-

Oh noes Headmistress has shown up

-

More schoolboys getting scolded

-

Everyone is children

-

But Mick is our inside guy at least. He actually wants to argue against it because he passed a crypt scene test. I still don’t know if he’s gonna survive but I mean, at least he had this? Sometimes cool characters get an entire backstory right before they get murdered and I can honestly see this ending with Ketch being in the room because he’s about to slice Mick’s throat, probably with the same dagger he once killed his BFF with back in Kendricks because why not :P

Which means Mick softening up only serves a metaphorical purpose unless he left some inside way for the Winchesters, like idk his bottle of tomato juice and recipe for a Bloody Mary turns out to be the code or something

WHO KNOWS

-

Well me if I ever finished the episode

-

She asks if the hunters obey him, but Mick obeyed them >.>

-

Mick’s chest hair is trying to get out of the room before him… 

Dang, sir. I was gonna joke about it during last episode when he was hanging out in the back of the car, but I didn’t feel like it was worth mentioning and i now regret that comment not happening completely; it’s definitely actually heightening the tension here, with his half-open shirt.

-

Nooooo they can’t kill Eileen… Why is she on their shitlist? I mean I know why but this is so unfair

-

MICK IS REBELLING

-

he is so gonna die because he’s doing the Naomi Gadreel Metatron redemption moment

especially because they’re all symbolic useless deaths; I think Gadreel was the only one who even made any sort of real difference

-

RIP Mick

-

Your scruff will be missed

-

Dean you can not sigh like that about Cas, with the big soulful heaving of shoulders and audibly wet breath and all I mean

someone might think you were in love with him or something, the way you’re carrying on

-

Incidentally I thought there was something fishy about it and Mittens confirmed to me it’s literally 2 days later and Sam and Dean appear not to have seen each other since shit went down, but Sam was the last person to talk to Eileen and know what she’s doing, so I’m guessing Sam and Eileen spent 2 days in Sam’s room rearranging the furniture.

I am beyond proud of my boy.

-

HEY Dean gets the Colt. I mean it’s almost enough to fill the gap between Sam x Eileen and Dean x Colt and forget Destiel :P

It parallels him and Ketch again (he also had sweet talky words to the Colt, which mirrored back to Dean getting her in 6x18), so I’m starting to feel like he kills Ketch with it? Like, symbolically needing to use it on a human person instead of the monster big bad or something? I know Eileen already accidentally killed a dude with it, but I mean, Dean and Ketch seem to have a reckoning coming, whether Dean knows Ketch and Mary hooked up or not (although, narratively, ends up heaping on weirdass subtext whether he knows or not >.> Dean vs the step father kind of thing)… this would be sort of neat.

-

Poor Mick just laying there.

-

Oh I typed that thing about Dean and Ketch before the Headmistress threw down the files for the Winchesters with Dean’s on top, so, yeah. That’s their reckoning a'coming.

-

It’s 1am and I really have not conclusive thoughts about this except that I am delighted Sam and Eileen hooked up and she fled the country instead of sticking around making me nervous about her getting the hit on her, and Sam did a bad Irish accent earlier because he’s like, goofily in love with her, so I guess he might just like, randomly fly to Ireland in the season finale to help her and they get married while they’re out there and -

Oh and also whenever Cas comes back Dean narratively has full permission to take him back to his room and not let him out for an entire two days.


	18. 12x18

Ketch is literally going to try and kill Dean just for saying that about his bike. 

I know he seems deep and interesting and complicated to some people but that’s the facts.

In slightly unrelated news it turns out I have had this entire season sussed out since the day Robbie Thompson announced he was leaving and I cry-watched 8x13 while eating ice cream and realised Sam’s furniture-related hubris from 11x17 was going to get him one day because it had been a theme since they first met the MoL ever, but this is all escalating exactly as I have foreseen and it’s coming down to the most petty motivations you can imagine.

I’m as surprised as you are when I’m actually right when I make shitty jokes and predict an entire season a year in advance. :D

-

I actually have nowhere else to be today so I woke up early, watched Elementary while I waited for coffee to kick in and now here I am while it’s still morning :D

-

Recappy all the BMoL stuff with a focus on Mom sleeping with Ketch, followed by our one sympathetic guy getting murdered by Ketch, and Umbridge pointing out the Winchesters suck to a clip of Dean wandering around with Lucille in the Bunker (listen I thought the whole thing was going to fall on Sam after years of him ripping up the wiring to install mini fridges and TVs, and putting his feet on the chairs, but nope at the last minute they shoehorn in a bloodsoaked Dean disrespecting the furniture which I’m taking a bitter Sam!girl stance on for no reason other than it makes me laugh that Dean yanked this one from under his nose)… Last thing we hear is that Ketch is going to come for them, and onto the cold open. Considering this is at least SUPPOSED to be a monster of the week (and I’m terrified of it) I’m like… deeply unappreciative of the total lack of warning.

I have a blanket though.

-

Idk if it was because the promo clip I saw (I think I may have missed one by noping out of this episode’s promo stuff and going to bed last night because I don’t remember a Dabb one) being the one with the Game of Thrones aliases but the kid Sam and Dean interview reminded me of Jon Snow… He looks even more like him in the dark wearing a coat with a fuzzy hood and it’s making me laugh. He’s not exactly a Jon Snow type personality though - like all we know of him right now is he likes watching his friends make out because he’s kinda gross.

(I can never tell if scenes like this are What The Writer Thinks Kids These Days Do or What The Writer Did When He Was Kids These Days… I suppose either is revealing >.>)

Anyway hat buddy slaps Jon Snow on the shoulder and leaves him to it and I really can’t make character parallels off this little info but I think hat buddy is wearing a red hat of the same style of plaid that both Sam and Dean have been wearing this season? It’s dark though.

-

Oh good creepy goat mask guy/actual monster is watching

is that an axe or a hammer?

*retreats under my blanket*

-

that backpack is literally like an anglerfish lure, with the glowstick attached to it

oh yay it’s full of money. You beat the trap, and the goat guy, you get a buttload of cash.

Monsters don’t tend to use complicated traps though :P

-

I really really don’t like the goat guy. Nope. Noooope. *adds a nope for every dramatic shot of him*

-

Anyway the first thing we hear is Cas’s voice mail, with “THE MEMORY REMAINS” captioning it, so I’ve got emotional whiplash. Trauma from the goat guy to achey soul pains from Dean trying to get ahold of Cas still, wandering the halls of the Bunker and being miserable.

I mean he’s *wandering the bunker* levels of miserable.

I could only find a bad download but I have a feeling Sam’s pitying look when he hears the tail end of this where Dean is being all worried about Cas is possibly worse.

Oh NO Dean’s been LOOKING for him. Including a standard “has any weirdo in a trench coat been arrested” google search which honestly I feel like should probably get more hits than Dean wants to deal with even if none of them are Cas :P

He’s cleaning guns now, including reminding us of all the ancient MoL guns stashed under the table, which really makes me think about how the Bunker is possibly in danger because the BMoL have as many keys to it as they like and Sam and Dean don’t know they’re about to be hunted by Ketch, who really only needs to do a kill ‘em in their sleep thing if he doesn’t feel like making a grand entrance and villain monologuing at them. I mean it won’t be good TV which is literally my only reassurance he won’t do that, or at least they’ll have a tip off and Bela him if he tries it (why are they always being nearly assassinated by Brits)… Anyway, the reminder that those guns show they are prepared to be attacked in their own home - but are they READY to be attacked in their own home? Dean cleaning the guns suggests maybe?

I still think this literally all goes back to Sam’s hubris about 8x13 where we cut between them finding the Bunker for the very first time and Dean returning after a week of supply runs to Kevin and crap, walks in, and Sam’s installed a mini fridge in the library already. Later Sam rolls his eyes at Dean wanting to get a pool table or whatever it was he told Cas in 8x22 but you started it Sam. (The next episode I watch with my mum will be 9x04, aka Sam is bored and stir crazy because Dean is keeping him in the Bunker, so he dives under the map table, and rips up several miles of wiring just to see where it goes.)

(11x23 was like… not that I’d been *waiting* for it per say but when Toni showed up and shot Sam and we’d recently seen Sam lounging with his feet on the furniture… I knew it was his own bloody fault he got shot and that moment earlier in season 11 had prepared me for it :P)

Anyway that sense of threat is coming back. We know there’s SOMETHING they filmed right towards the end of the season with Dean wandering the Bunker with a gun in hand, so I am feeling like it’s time to explore every scrap they give us about the sense of unease the BMoL give them about their own home, whether it’s for us to know or them to feel.

Not sure Sam’s got it even though Toni SHOT him here already, but Dean, at least, is cleaning the defensive weapons stashed under the tables and that makes me feel like he’s at least HALF aware of it, and of course this season he is being shown rather more on the ball about stuff…

-

(This is what happens when you combine giving me the entire day to watch and a creepy goat mask guy I don’t wanna see again - 15 minute free form essay on the Bunker vs Sam)

-

“He’ll be fine. He always is.”

Dean is like… yeah.

The other times he’s dropped off the map include, not exhaustively

* being in the middle of an angelic civil war while working with Crowley  
* being mind-controlled by Naomi and eventually smashing Dean’s face in   
* being possessed by Lucifer

So you can see why Dean’s “yeah” is a wee bit unconvinced :P

Sam taps nervously on the table. Why do I always have to reassure Dean when I’m worried about Cas too? Do I even believe anything I’m saying or am I just saying it because that’s what you do when Dean’s worried about Cas?

-

Sam goes through all the books on demons. “It turns out we have a lot of books on demons”

Dean, who spent all of season 9, 10 and 11 reading every single book on demons to find info on Knights of Hell, the Mark of Cain, and how to get Lucifer out of your boyfriend, doesn’t even look up from cleaning the guns.

-

Sam’s emaaaail. Sadly I have a very low def download so I put in a request for more information which is my new way of saying good morning on new episode day:

elizabethrobertajones  
MITTENS I MUST READ THE WINCHESTER’S EMAIL  
I am pretty sure I can read some of it but I have a very very low def download but I’m pretty sure we have like 8 different stories underneath the one from “Mick” :P  
I can read “Dean: click this link!” (I think) which suggests Dean is perpetually sending Sam screamers or weird shit, Dean again which I think he used the email title line to say “You owe me for the gas I paid for last week”?  
then 2 Biggerson’s emails including a monthly newsletter… are they keeping an eye because so much weird shit happens there, or have they been unwittingly signed up ever since they were the millionth customers and this is the long form version of the luck going bad?  
A life time of being plagued by it  
Sam has flagged this email  
he also flagged one which seems to say “Impala Owner’s [something]” which says “I think I might have the part you’re looking for”  
maybe he has to forward that to Dean  
And then Dean, “this is not a case IMO”, Dean, “Professional Eating Contest videos” which I cackled at  
and Dean, flagged again, “question about that [something] research you were talking about”?  
I want to know more about everything but especially Biggerson’s :P

-

Anyway insert fake shock about the case from Mick showing up from beyond the grave

[image of the anglerfish backpack] 

-

Dean is having so much fun waving the Colt around and sighting down it and now fake-shooting it… I love how it seems to show him shooting forwards and then we go to Ketch checking HIS email (or… Mick’s email) - Dean shooting Ketch? He’s having so much fun with the Colt I am starting to feel like the narrative is going to have to sadly pat him on the head and take the gun away from him and let someone else deal with it.

-

NYOOOOOM *scrreeech* NYOOoooom

-

Straight to a sheriff with an interest in doing taxidermy at his desk, and Sam and Dean giving him at least 10ft berth, to suggest the proverbial pole has been deployed. Honestly is this commentary on how J2 hate the taxidermy stuff fans sometimes show them? Maybe 9x05 wasn’t subtle enough about how it skeeves them out. Dean especially is hanging right the hell back, and I think 9x05 managed to establish it genuinely freaks him out.

Of course if it’s a taxidermy goat head and the monster is a mask we’re looking right at our guy. And he’s got the big spooky eye through his magnifying glass… This episode is kind of dark and dusty and I love how it looks already. Somehow it just seems grimy from the like, 4 scenes I’ve seen.

If it is a guy in a mask, then Plush and Thinman are the episodes with overlap thematically. Promo stuff also suggested it might be a god, which the ritual pattern of disappearances going back a LONG time suggest. The 20 year gap, on the other hand, suggests to me a sort of legacy of being the goatman, and a child has taken up the super creepy mantle.

-

The makeout spot is called Weathertop so that’s a Lord of the Rings reference, and an oblique sideways reference to Stranger Things, where the kids called the forest Mirkwood. Got a bearded sheriff dude in I think similar colours, although obviously he’s super creepy with the taxidermy and so not sympathetic like our sheriff from that show.

Also 9x05 had the Joffrey Rat, which finishes the loop between all these references.

-

Oh boy, throw in The Chitters with the townsfolk apparently not caring about the disappearances, and having a good rationalisation for why the kid would have run away instead of being snatched. Of course if this guy is the goat man or helping him, then it gets a bit more complicated about why does it, not that it wasn’t complicated in 11x19.

The kid was getting beaten by his dad, which is also pretty grim for telling us about bad parenting, which, of course, is a theme of the season just because Mary, and I guess Mary has all that coming for the long belated conversation about what her deal actually DID to their lives, explained in frank terms in the way you HAVE to have it on screen eventually even if you put it off all season in fear of what happens when you tell her the truth about how you were raised/raised yourself.

“Trying to take a kid from its parents, even if they’re the worst people in the world… it’s not easy.”

(The only time we see kid Sam or Dean NOT under John’s influence even when they’re always alone when we see them, is 9x07 where Dean is purposefully ABANDONED and left to rot by John, and now I name-checked all the season 9 episodes in a row except 9x06 in that block of MotW, if we assume 9x08 has at least a tangential relevance if it IS a god :P)

Goes on to describe how Jarrod had to then spoonfeed his father after he became ill, and basically give HIM the duty of care that his father failed to give HIM, aka a really really blatant example of swapping the child/parent dynamic around, which shows the horrible duty of it all. And if you say this show isn’t about the whole parental duty thing getting messed up and given to the wrong people, I’d say you never met Dean. :P In this case, Mary has basically been accused of running off and leaving her kids to look after themselves, or look after her messes in the case of the 12x12 hunt which became the focus of the argument (“Cas nearly died”!!) - basically in a way Mary parallels to Jarrod although of course Sam and Dean aren’t exactly abusing her, just that they’re the family she escaped, because there was a burden there she didn’t want to deal with, and Dean saying he wanted her to be their Mom… Obviously I am analysing this sort of on the level of what I think the narrative has constructed about how they irrationally FEEL about it, not what I actually think the dynamic is or who deserves this sort of condemnation… Of course the parallel of the beaten kid and the father suddenly swapping around to be the burden on them works with Sam and Dean’s entire childhood, and now the problem of how they relate to Mary, that she’s now someone else for them to WORRY about and not fulfilling the “Mom” sort of role they might have expected.

-

Anyway final comedic beat to end it on like the sheriff has been happily making the taxidermied weasel thingy without really concerning himself too deeply on this problem. Sam and Dean kind of recoil, Dean somehow standing even further away than he was before while still standing in the same place.

-

Blah blah Dean and drugs subtext, probably talked over after this promo scene came out - “medicinal purposes” - also showing they’re the cool feds who turn a blind eye, you know, if you give us the info we want.

But also of course, if Sam “oregano” Winchester did this exact same thing it would be a joke (hey, 11x19 again) while Dean doing it is like, duh of course Dean is chill with the stoner and has a wink wink moment about why you smoke, because he’s ALWAYS been chill with the stoner characters for ~some reason~.

-

The factory he seems to work at has big crossed axe signs, I guess because of the tomahawk thing. It looked more like a hammer that the monster had? If it is a monster?

-

Dean is distracted in an OTT way by the waitress at the diner. The fact I have written like 15k so far of a not so mysteriously subtle project applying this to Destiel in an AU over the last couple of weeks is just making me laugh. Like, my head is full of Cas coming over with a coffee jug and Dean being like :D Hi! … and now I have some extra visuals for this all in my head. Dean  being a distracted dork by diner staff is my jam.

He likes that they smell like food.

Wondering if 12x12 is going to have more relevance here because of course this IS a trap set up by Ketch and idk how far he’s going to let them get with the monster but he is totally around somewhere. Right back to the start of the season where they were being haunted by a motorbike. But anyway they all nearly died in 12x12 and a full 360 degrees around a diner table and a waitress interrupting the attempt to explain the plot is all being repeated in smaller scale here.

-

Dean does a goat impression

-

I like that the goat got downgraded from William to Bill. Got a lot of name stuff all of a sudden - the Michael and Mick thing from last episode.

“It’s a shortened version of my name.”

-

The waitress is getting way too much attention from not just Dean but the camera. Starting to think

[insert image of the anglerfish backpack]

-

For the first time in their goddamn lives Dean thinks to bring the Colt on a regular hunt. Like, they owned it at least for a space in season 3 where they were hunting monsters. Though some of these episodes were difficult to apply it to, 3x07 and 3x08 were pretty regular old monsters :P (It’s a small window but it’s enough to bug me that in the gap between Sin City and Dream a Little Dream, they never once said, hey, it might not be demons but you think the Colt might be handy? Even if we have no idea wtf is going on, we own this thing… Why not at least carry it and refer to the fact we are? OBVIOUSLY for storytelling reasons you don’t WANT the kill-anything gun to be ruining the tension, but )

-

Of course Dean thinking he already knows how to kill the monster and telling Sam to be smart about it (“work smarter, Sammy, not harder”) feels to me like it’s got into a dangerous trap of thinking it’s really simple and he has it all sorted. All they need to do is find it and Dean can kill it. He’s waving around his phallic gun symbol, can’t wait to shoot it off again, and thinks also he’s got a chance with the waitress that the camera’s been distractedly following as much as his eyes. Dean’s NOT got it all sorted, and there’s ALWAYS a catch, right? We’re 9 minutes into the episode, he’s not gonna hook up with the waitress and shoot the monster, and go home with a spring in his step because that’s not how this works, even if it seems stupidly simple when you look at the elements he’s got in front of him. Which, I guess, looks like what he thinks this life should be - hunting with his brother, badass gun in his pocket so he’s the best in the game, and a pretty waitress who has been eyeing him up too, to seal the deal >.>

-

Oh jesus I’m with Sam about the coffee thing. “This coffee is hot, kind of like - ” *finger gun and wink*

I’m genuinely feeling this from the POV of my fic. Poor Sam, trapped in the diner putting up with Cas and Dean.

-

Okay I edited in the this coffee pick up line but completely ruined because the terrible coffee AU is for fucking with the characters and also for Cas you have to ruin it to start with because if it all works they hook up and that’s the end of the story :P

-

Poor, poor Sam.

-

Anyway, looks like not-Jon Snow going in the freezer (FREEZER, SEE? IT WORKS) with the PERISHABLES under the crossed tomahawks is maaaaaybe not gonna last much longer.

-

*jumpscare with his boss*

I feel like not-Jon Snow is probably not gonna make it

he’s walking out into the snow

-

Oh gee there’s a goatman in his mirror

Also AAA

-

Also they fucking killed him while he was lying on his back in the fucking snow.

-

Was he a reference or was my brain filling in the gaps after the Martell and Stark thing, the eternal question of how much I just read into it all :P

-

Anyway Dean’s happy… Sam’s got the, I’m happy for you but we do have a job to do, look :P

-

hahahah Dean complains that Sam didn’t order pancakes… Welp at this point I am basically just laughing because this is weirdly following the narrative of my story except completely NOT. Like, if/when I post it there’s definitely stuff already in it that my brand of plundering canon will make it look like that was also edited in after watching this. Oh well

-

At least I don’t have a fucking terrifying goat man called Bill in it and I’m not adding him if you paid me

-

Dean stealing Sam’s not-pancakes is probably saying something or other, for the endless analysing of what the fuck is going on between the brothers now - Sam’s ordered his healthy breakfast and Dean steals it from him and tries it for himself after both their initial impression that Dean’s not going to eat it. But he’s hungry and rumpled from his wild night with the waitress, so… Egg whites and veggies is better than nothing. He WANTS pancakes but he’s settling for this, the Sam-approved food that’s supposedly good for him.

Now I’m just comparing food and sex again and wondering if Cas is pancakes in this scenario :P That Dean obviously really likes hot waitresses and Sam knows it too because he knows aaall of Dean’s corny pick up lines. He’s absolutely not complaining about eating this after considering that there aren’t pancakes on offer right now… Though the stealing from Sam side of it worries me. Mostly because Sam has previously expressed feeling left out or that Dean’s attention is stolen from him - I watched 8x23 too recently so it’s bothering me again that Sam said all that about Dean trusting another vampire or angel. If it comes down to attention, of course the whole picking up the waitress scene was really about Dean’s attention, and not listening to Sam, and the camera running after her along with Dean’s line of sight, leaving Sam’s attempt to work with Dean in the dust for where OUR focus goes too.

And now Dean’s stolen his breakfast :P

I mean Sam doesn’t seem resentful but I worry. >.> Because 8x23 showed how much that can bubble under the surface. Sam being jealous of Cas is foreshadowed as far as I could tell in season 8 when I did the miniscule picking it apart rewatch, in like, ONE scene in 8x08, but he still bursts out with his fear about Dean trusting another angel over him, like there’s already one who’s stolen Dean’s attention… Sam is such an under the surface guy, who knows what bothers him day to day at the moment, but we’re on another Cas is Gone stretch of the show, even if it’s so far been 2 episodes and his heavily flagged but unspoken absence in 12x16. And it’s Sam’s job to reassure Dean that Cas is going to be fine, when he’s supposedly both of their family.

-

Heh, there’s a new beer called 3 Sheeps with a neon sign behind Sam.

I have a feeling that my instinct to yell about sheep is actually from my own original novel where a character keeps flagging up her friends’ behaviour by just posting a sheep emoji in the group chat, so idk what it means here.

[insert gif of Cas in 9x03 going “what sheep?”]

Separating the sheep from the goats?

-

Meanwhile, more of 11x19 vibes - Sam telling Dean about how Pan would take people into the woods for an orgy, after Dean calls him adorable because he plays a flute - I tell you what I’m not over, Dean in 3x08 when they were trying to diagnose a pagan god, and this exchange:

SAM: (Reading an article on the laptop) Huh… When you sacrifice to Hold Nickar, guess what he gives you in return.  
DEAN: Lap dances, hopefully.  
SAM: Mild weather.  
DEAN: (Looks out the window) Like no snow in the middle of December in the middle of Michigan.

I pasted that far into the conversation because I’m still not over the fact they had to use that lore to explain why the Christmas episode, filming in the autumn, KIND OF LOOKED LIKE IT HAD BEEN FILMED IN THE AUTUMN, buuut here in the snow, you can do a full on Jon Snow death scene re-enactment with your terrifying goat god. A little bit of balance happening here :P

Uh, anyway. Dean liking the idea of lapdances from Hold Nickar, and orgies with Pan.

-

Buuut then everyone gets murdered.

Of course the opening scene was kind of like an orgy with all the couples making out - I don’t think they’d have had sex especially as it was so cold, but still. They made quite a point of showing what goes on at Weathertop. Also, while we’re on the subject - in 12x15, quite recently, Gwen’s boyfriend was hoping she’d dragged him out into the woods to have sex.

-

Sam also manages to gross Dean out with the “full to bursting with their moist slippery meat” and I honestly don’t blame him for shoving the food away :P Sam’s tried to gross him out before (succeeded with the chicken feet in that first Buckleming episode in season 7). I wonder if, growing up as ghost hunting kids, grossing each other out with real lore and stuff is a sick game they’d play :P

Anyway if I hadn’t mentioned enough this episode freaks me the fuck out and it has a great horrifying feeling to it. It actually feels dark and creepy.

-

Oh my god the useless sheriff owns the place and is running it into the ground. Heir to a meat empire and he just wants to play with taxidermy and being a big sheriff in a small town. Is he a fucking Trump reference :P

-

Eeew meat processing plant actually on screen. This makes me uncomfortable :P the meat’s all hung up like our characters often get tortured and I’m assuming there’s some parallels to make just with the concept of a meat processing plant and what the BMoL want to do.

Also if the monster is connected to the plant, that’s a great place to work to get a ton of meat if you NEED to eat it, so you can go quiet with the killing for 20 years if health inspectors are after you to improve your old ways into more modern safter ways to do things

/might be a metaphor for hunting too

-

Sheriff has absolutely no plausible reaction to Black Bill, stammering over a reaction, then dismissing him as a boogeyman, and using the exact same excuse from 11x19 for why all the others left.

-

Aand sorry for all the references but Jon Snow wakes up drenched in red light, and of course his resurrection in the show was, well… red. :P I have no idea how many spoilers I should be giving away. This is preeeetty old news I think.

Anywho. Sheriff not suspicious at all for his words leading directly to this - yeah he’s lying but there’s the truth behind them as if he just somehow knows he’s alive and sleeping off being attacked

-

Oh wow he appears to be in the freezer in the meat packing plant, what an unexpected twist.

“PERISHABLE” behind him again

LOL “Billhook meats” well then.

Also all the fake warning signs about a coolant spill and toxic chemicals to keep people from going near the freezer. Do you ignore the warning signs and push on because you could save someone? Sam and Dean walk riiiiight past.

This is basically a lesson what dramatic irony is.

-

mittensmorgul  
New: Frodo: take a look at this  
Dean: Click this link!  
Dean: You owe me for the gas I paid for last week  
Biggerson’s: New loyalty program member rewards

elizabethrobertajones  
I KNEW IT

mittensmorgul  
Biggerson’s: Monthly newsletter

elizabethrobertajones  
they are part of Biggerson’s cult

mittensmorgul  
(the subtitle on that one is “Visit our new location in Duluth  
Impala Owner’s Group: Re: I think I might have the part your looking for  
(it says "your” I’m transcribing it exactly, not making typos) :P

elizabethrobertajones  
Okay I am curious about why Sam had that one :P  
maybe it’s their shared account but the rest is all Dean trolling or  bothering Sam

mittensmorgul  
Dean: This is not a case IMO (I can;t read the rest on this line, will come back to it with a different frame)  
aDean: Professional Eating Contest Video (this competition ends _____)  
Dean: question about that lore research you were talking about

elizabethrobertajones  
Gosh I love the details like that that make them feel like real human beings :D

-

I think Jon Snow is about to realise the meat is people?

Nope it’s his poor friend, frozen and mutilated.

-

Oh boy, Bill does not have human hands.

-

*ketchups*

well this episode is rapidly becoming a top 10 Do Not Watch While Eating

the burger right after a meat processing plant is also really uncomfortable - Dean says he’s hungry in there, and cheerfully goes to eat a burger after missing the giant warning signs that something is Not Okay, and the ketchup splatter is a vivid way to convey the death - and Dean’s *eating* it. This episode he’s in full on Dean mode, which is never a good sign. He gets like this when he’s NOT doing okay, and this turns his attempt to eat a regular old meal really horrifying.

(Ketchup also linked to Cas - “is ketchup a vegetable” - Dean counts it as one and he’s definitely getting a good amount of his five a day with this burger, instead of the healthy food he stole from Sam)

-

“Grow up, Sam. 'Kay, burger’s beef, bacon’s pigs, soylent green’s people, but this - this - this is heaven.”

Now I have a Mittens awake, she’s pointed out the big BS signs in the diner, which I think sums up everything I was going to say about Dean’s mood. :P

He’s got 2 burgers here in his speech - the hypothetical one that’s beef, and the “But this is heaven” burger which is the right now burger.

Of course, burgers are so associated with Cas, from 5x14, which I feel like it’s always inevitable that it’s going to get mentioned sooner or later, and 10x09. And they make Cas very happy. And burgers are linked to Dean and his humanity and soul - in season 3 he’s eating a bacon cheeseburger for breakfast because why not. In season 8 and 9 they’re linked to his descent, so that Crowley mentions it was the fact he didn’t eat one that tipped him off that Dean was really truly lost when it came to his humanity.

Not sure entirely what it means here, but I think Dean trying to signal normal and healthy and fine is a good start, that this is the Default Dean - waitresses and burgers and all

-

“Maybe they just run an evil petting zoo on the side” I mean they’ve met weirder

-

If the Bishops owned all the town, then no wonder everyone who got killed worked there.

I mean I suppose there would always be some services like shops and post offices etc to support a town but… yeah.

I guess even a town built for everyone to work in one place doesn’t mean the ENTIRE populace works there. Shh Lizzy.

-

Gosh looks like Ketch is invading the Bunker already, for info gathering. This is not at all like 10x22, and

ELDON  
So this is what I know about Dean Winchester. He’s got crappy taste in music, got a hot mom, and he loves flannel.

Basically what Ketch might think already :P

-

Oh my god “How does Sam get his hair so shiny” you can’t lampshade this. You CAN’T FORESHADOW THIS WITH THE FANCY SHAMPOO LINE

when I heard Andrew Dabb was gonna take over the show, I think a line exactly like this is preeetty much what I was expecting at some point or another - weirdly foreshadowed, fan-servicey, and repeating another Dabb episode but flipped upside down :P

-

He also mentions the “ratty flannels”, which, rude.

-

Creeeeeepy house *pulls blanket over my head*

-

“We just got lucky”

Creeeeepy basement in the creeeepy house. You only put that many locks when you really don’t want something to get out

-

Did Dean shoot the Colt when the light blew? Nah, he just jumped and raised it.

-

Why is the Sheriff coming to his creepy empty house right now

-

*weary sigh* “Why’s it always the rich ones? I mean, what are they like, 'Croquet’s alright, but cha know what would be great? Murder!’”

-

I officially love this interpretation of Dean Winchester so much

Possibly because I spent ages trying to edit out him saying “I mean, [x] is like,” of everything I write all the time and keep forgetting that there’s always the possibility I picked up the verbal tic from him :P

-

Sheriff keeping his keys for his murder dungeon in a hollowed out book. Being the one to do the walk down the stairs with his gun out, but being caught out by Dean, who has the Colt on him.

-

“It’s not what it looks like”   
“Really? Because it looks like a straight up murder room to me”

-

*rescinds previous love of Dean so I can apply it again*

-

Maybe the sheriff is just being blackmailed by the goat

-

“my family has a secret”   
“well, the best ones do”

-

It’s a monster in the basement that made them rich, as long as they fed it human bood. Well that sounds like a creepy fairy deal to me, at least with the making them rich thing.

Goat dude is just a dude. I like that they invent another monster to do it.

Also he had the taxidermy skills to maintain the mask - knew it

-

ooops and then he tried to put a stop to the dark family of the history, and loses all his money bit by bit and the town dies, and now people are getting killed again

“I just wanted to help people, to make up for all the bad we’ve done” well that’s an extremely Winchester thing to say, at least when they’re feeling guilty and motivated to repair things from their dark legacy, rather than just hunting to do it to save people  because that’s their job and they’re good at it. Sam especially is motivated by this, but Mary, of course, with her deal, started the guilt on the family (though of course the whole being manipulated by angels and demons to start the apolcalypse since literally forever may have a bit more to do with it :P)

And he wanted to leave a legacy

-

Wow, he kept the god locked up hoping he’d starve to death - not sure that’s how it works

-

I hate this with Sam leaning over to look in the hole. Dean with the Colt is nowhere near close enough.

-

Dean “I kill gods” Winchester goes to investigate

-

I ALSO HATE THIS WITH DEAN EXPLORING

OH NO EYEHOLES IN THE MASK SHOT

-

AHHHHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

-

NOPE

-

Well it’s an empty suit, and an empty bed beside it.

Is it in the mirror -

no there’s a guy behind him

AAAH

Dean gets punted through a dust sheet and down the stairs

Going through a dust sheet is never a good idea.

-

Is he dead, like, dead dead?

Sam gets locked in the murder basement while the bad guys all gain the upper hand.

I’m legit terrified :P

-

I mean they honest to god got the drop on the Winchesters in a way that didn’t make them look stupid, but the bad guys look powerful and scary

-

Wait, is Sam locked in it? This is happening too fast. Where’s he thumping from? *rewinds again*

-

OH the guy in the suit rushed down the stairs and locked Sam in WITH the sheriff

who… is helping him

huh

-

okay, so they are apparently working together.

I am so not sure I trust this

-

ooh Bunker montage. Light hearted music.

-

I am pretty worried the Bunker’s days are numbered - I say that this time almost every year, because it becomes the centre of attention and this exact same thing in 10x22 made me convinced it was all going to get torn down.

But in this case, Ketch lampshades as well that you can’t see a damn thing out of the telescope, which has been one of the big mysteries of the set since it was first introduced, so I feel like they’re pretty much done with it now :P All the mystery is gone. Their home has been invaded again and again and is it even safe to set up shop here?

-

Honestly this might be an anti-Buckleming measure if they’re getting rid of the Bunker, just because it would force Sam and Dean to be a bit less reliant on a home base and the googling in 12x08 was so bad I would consider burning everything down in order to force their episodes to be more dynamic >.>

I will miss Dean having his own room

-

Ketch invades Dean’s room, in a long line of people invading that room…

-

He finds the porn, and very carefully separated from it, the photos of Mary. I’m pretty sure Dean’s bedside table is filled with candy. Ketch looks at the photo of Mary, looking exactly as she does now (as she’s, like, a few months older with a different haircut) holding toddler Dean, and has the most priceless face I’ve ever seen. I mean, he’s kinda fond of Mary, maybe? Maybe that’s a weird moment of softness? But I’m also pretty sure that’s “wtf he’s a TODDLER and she looks the SAME is she the person that dermatologists hate??”

-

Meanwhile Dean isn’t looking so good

is he wrapped with saran wrap

-

Well I think they’ve finally found a way to tie up a Winchester and also keep him fresh in the fridge for months

-

“You got a lot of jokes” “right now that’s about all I got”

-

I had to go for a walk which meant leaving Dean in clingfilm. He’s right as I left him, deeply unimpressed :D This stuff is good.

-

“I’m a Bishop. That’s what we do, right? Hunting people, killing them! The family business!”

So that’s so many families over the years, from the Benders in season 1, to the Steins in season 10 who are being mirrored by the BMoL who see themselves as a messed up family, and then the Winchesters when they’ve strayed, have also done the family name a disservice. A dark mirror to their entire family, with these half-brothers, same father, different mother. I guess Sam and Dean both have a wildly different idea of who Mary is, going back to 1x01 which showed how Sam has a hypothetical idea of her and Dean has a sacred memory, which makes them speak of her very differently. Or, you could say, Sam was raised by Dean as his mother figure instead, and Dean did a very different job than his own void in the shape of the memory of Mary, represented by those photos Ketch was enraptured by…

-

Also this guy wants to save the town by some sacrificing but for the greater good. Right up to sacrificing his own brother.

-

Dean’s left in cling film in the fridge.

Lol

-

Hehehe Ketch saying “Bugger”

“I could use a pint!”

-

Ahaaha Dean in a wheelie chair

oh he got out the cling film.

Now he’s banging on the door that they ignored earlier.

-

We just saw a “danger sharp blades” sign so I’m now hoping that comes back into play :P

-

This is still scary because right near the end we don’t know what the actual monster looks like, in so many words.

-

Dean gets himself a large hook. Nice.

-

Owie, Sam got hit in the head with a large mallet

-

Oh dear, brothers confronting each other while Sam is out of action and Dean hunts the monster/is hunted by it in the next room

Brother feeling under appreciated when asked to stop, blurts out that all he gets in his life is the crap - the second hand, failing, run-down stuff. “Not any more, I’m saving this town!” he shouts, waving the Colt at his brother. “I’m the hero!”

shheeeeeesh

-

On the sheriff’s badge the tomahawks are crossed, raised. On the meat packing plant logos, they seem to be hanging down if I remember right?

-

Sam gets in a second Colt kill of the year

-

Dean is looking seriously beat up and defeated, and got basically no easy kill that he wanted.

-

The sheriff sits gloomily by his dead (evil) brother, and says this is his legacy. He chose to end the family legacy of evil, and wasn’t tempted by it, despite being super creepy and weird I guess those are just personality traits because this was a very dark mirror where a brother dies, at the hand of another (right after the Michael thing last episode where Mick had to kill his best friend and of course we have Ketch cheerfully wandering around clearly also a graduate of the exact same fight…) - anyway even though Sam killed the God and ended the ~cosmic~ suffering on the town, the Sheriff had to kill his brother to end the direct threat that it would be used and people would die directly for it. I mean leaving the god and hoping it starves is a bad idea because that’s essentially what God did with Amara.

Thing is, with Mick dead but Ketch still giving them orders like he is alive, the Winchesters are working in a place where working with the BMoL has already blown up in their face and they have no idea yet that this decision hasn’t worked for them; at the moment they’ve just lost their privacy to them but they’re in a LOT of danger and clueless to it, though, as I said, Dean was cleaning the under-the-table guns as if half-prepared for the worst.

-

Awww home sweet home

-

BMoL listening in: “next time you hear me say that our family is messed up, remind me that we could be psycho goat people”

… “I have no idea what just happened to them but their lives sound interesting”

-

Dean that mini fridge is cursed. That mini fridge is why your home is bugged and your safety compromised.

I hope those cold beers are worth it, Sam

-

“What do you think our legacy is going to be?” Oh don’t ask the heavy questions before you’ve even had a drink :P

Sam has completely obliterated the Winchester Gospels from his memory. Smart. He doesn’t think they’d be written about in the history books and frankly he doesn’t even want to deal with the fact 5 years of their lives are pulpy horror novels

-

“That’s fine, because we left the world better than we found it”

Ketch listening in “I’m gonna go kill these emo fuckers right now before I shoot myself”

Oh my god this is why they get shot by the MoL this blatant fucking disrespect of their property

I mean, sure, brothers nostalgia but seriously this whole thing started because Sam was installing mini fridges willy nilly, and now they’ve ruined an antique table

-

Like, the BMoL’s Code probably has a whole section on what to do about asshole hunters who ruin their property.

-

If you can’t tell I find it kind of adorable that Dean decided to do that although the Swan Song flashbacks were a little on the nose and I’d have liked if they could trust us to remember that for ourselves, especially since it still doesn’t explain that those flashbacks were FROM Swan Song if you’re a super casual viewer it’s still just them as kids reminding you they did that to the car as well once.

this whole conversation has a pretty nostalgic feel that the show is going to come to the end of its run sooner rather than later, which, when you’re in season 12, you really have to start thinking about and writing towards, which I guess is why SO much has been tied off neatly with a bow this season.

-

Does make me vaguely worried about the Sam and Dean kamikaze ending but there’s always room for one of them coming home without the other and looking at those names on the table or something. it moves it from the car to their home, which means they can now use that instead of the car for a nostalgic kick in the face at the end of all things to show us they’re moving on and call this place home.

-

Ew, Ketch is just like, Mick got on a plane and left.

I hope Toni wasn’t actually murdered, and there’s like the Hot Fuzz bit where Sam or Dean or Mary drop into the dungeon of the castle and there’s literally everyone who pissed off the neighbourhood watch for years in a big heap of corpses and skellingtons with a great big bushy beard. But the equivalent for Mick’s stubble and chest hair

-

Ketch is like “I’d rather be with your mother” - I think they are trying to show he’s caught nostalgia

And mentions a chupacabra which I’d been wondering about when all we knew about this episode was goats but quickly became apparent before we got to the episode that it wasn’t gonna be so I’m awarding myself half a point for that anyway. They have goats on the brain.

Or chupacabra is a goat-sucker, or something that prays on goats. Sam killed the goat god, but Ketch has orders to kill them.

-

holy shit he stole the Mary picture. That pic has been used for SO FRIGGIN MUCH over the years it’s like a literal hostage situation right now over a PHOTO.

Dean slagging off Ketch’s bike in the background despite the fact he loved it when he first saw it. He’s like fuck you and the bike you rode in on

without knowing it

beautiful :’)

-

I think Dean slagging off the bike is probably another tick in the box where I think he and Ketch are going to be the ones to fight it out in the end.


	19. 12x19

for some reason I got that old advert that’s like, “the future’s bright… the future’s Orange” stuck in my head the entire time. (I mean Orange got bought out by ee and the name vanished so… no, it’s not Orange. :P)

I blame the return of Sam’s orange jacket.

expectations - fairly muted since I read pretty much no speculation over the little break and really don’t know what to make of this season in forward planning. Mittens said it best to me last night - that the show is doing quite predictable things but the layers and complexity and subversions on their own playbook are where it’s interesting. So in a way it feels like we could map out what might happen in this episode? But I didn’t feel like reading that because that would just make it feel predictable to the point of boredom guessing the big beats. And I’m expecting some of thing with the emotional side to be almost unpredictably messy. Like how 12x12 I don’t think anyone was going into it thinking Cas was going to have a big i love you moment :P

For the actual writing, this is our potentially bizarre but wonderful combination of writers - Glynn and Berens having a crack at the Kelly stuff, and I think is the first time she’s appeared outside of a Buckleming episode, while this is only the second time the Kelly stuff has even been IN a non-Buckleming episode after we saw Cas’s side a bit in 12x15 before it got derailed into him going to Heaven, or 12x10 which was emotionally about it but only had mentions either side. Glynn’s been huge on consent and attempting to handle things sensitively (to a varying degree of success in implementation according to the fandom,  but I award points for trying…) and Berens definitely wants to be a feminist writer and also to varying degrees of acceptance by the fandom, but his heart is in the right place. I think the two of them together would hopefully bring a very different perspective to Kelly’s story and this is the episode where I’m hoping they make the most of the fact this storyline is happening… Plus I’m fairly sure this is the one directed by Amanda Tapping so there’s that :3

-

recap starts right off with what Cas has been up to this third of the season. I was starting to forget who he was. Dean is worried about the same thing. Blah blah Kelly, Dean worrying about Cas, blah blah Kelly and Dagon, Eileen being a BAMF, where’s Cas is he okay, Dean has the Colt.

I’ve never really ranked recaps out of 10 or anything but that was a pretty good one for all the layering in how Dean’s been worried about Cas in between all these other events taking place, and also making it SO CLEAR that Dean is the one who’s been worried about Cas

-

Kelly’s looking great >.> Dagon appears to have moved her to a dungeon. Lovely. She’s got the worst beside manner ever.

Or it’s just the basement of a horrible shack. LOOKS like a dungeon, which I think is the point.

-

Oh gosh Dagon is properly scary, and Kelly gets some self-reflection… Or, well, her reflection is broken by the mirror and she’s just a faceless baby bump. Great shot.

-

Oh no Kelly no… I actually care about her now and she got to actually say some actual words about how she feels and how this has affected her, aka jumped right over my extremely low bar for her treatment that Buckleming weren’t exactly straining themselves to get over, and now she’s trying to kill herself. :< :< They finally let the actress DO something where the scene was about HER and not JUST her baby, and it was incredible and terrible and arrrghhhh

I hope everyone was okay after that opening because that was pretty harsh. Bobo puts suicide-related stuff in a lot of his episodes with about the reliability of Buckleming and creepy pregnancies, but there’s some pretty vivid, awful suicides on screen thanks to him, and this was a long beautifully shot sequence of her bleeding out

I mean I assume she’ll be fine and I was waiting for the twist before the title card where the nephilim forces her back to life, but I guess they’re leaving us on that for now >.>

(This was necessary to do, though, both because Kelly’s really in a place where only extreme reactions can happen to prove anything, as it’s such a tense bad situation, and also SHE needed to take an action to be a remotely fleshed out character after all she’s been dragged through so far, and ALSO we need to see some proof the nephilim is as bad as it is, burning bible aside, that it’s just not quite enough of a real threat or presence - something everyone is talking about but with the 9 month wait for a baby to pop is very hypothetical for the intervening time - I was actually expecting her to try cutting it out of herself, or at least if I had an R rated horror version of this show I would show that >.>)

(I mean if I was in control of an R rated version of the show we would probably not have this plotline :P)

-

*adds Sam drawing on the table to my list of offences he’s committed against the bunker*

He really has it in for that table

That was a pretty fun montage of him doing stuff and thinking on screen for us. Weird as it may be I don’t get the feeling the Winchesters think a lot because they usually show us them right when they walk in having googled something or already worked it out. We get middle of episode research montages but only a couple of episodes start on reading montages and usually to show the research is futile… Actually showing Sam puzzling out the thing he was wondering about before we get Dean wandering in and Sam explaining what that was all about is… weirdly refreshing… Proof they use their brains.

He’s working out when Nephilim are born, which seems to be a somehow more complicated, magical thing than simple biology, but does explain the way he was talking about it in the promo, which without the montage sounded like another boring, “so I googled it and surprisingly there was a website to work this out”, kind of explanation.

It does get boring to keep showing that, even if thinking montages take up time, they LOOK good and are better storytelling for the characters.

-

Wait if you guys went to prison around early december, you DID spend Christmas and maybe Dean’s birthday in the lock up… Oh no :P Was that ever actually confirmed? I thought we went the other way on that when we were trying to work it out over Christmas.

-

CAAAAS

Cas cas cas cas cas

“Hello.” That is still the term? Been away a while :P

-

I love Dean’s face as he watches Cas come down to join them. He’s just stunned to see him.

Annoyed because he’s concerned

“working with the angels”

*Dean’s face puckers up comically*

-

Cas lies to them *Dean starts to make the 6x15 pouting face* (“that’s how he does it”) … I have to screencap this I’ve never seen Dean make such a weird face since then :P

He goes through like eight different emotions and there isn’t room enough for them all on his face. He’s still pouting about one thing and then Sam says they’re glad Cas is back and he overloads :P

-

Bless Amanda Tapping for capturing that on camera.

-

yikes Dean, once again with the concerned and angry thing >.> Pls stop being angry at Cas because you can’t handle missing him that much. Sam says they’re glad Cas is back because that’s what you’re supposed to say and he’s happy Cas is back and there’s some extra help and you know sometimes Cas is here and sometimes Cas isn’t but when he is he’s helpful and they like each other and get on… and meanwhile Dean has burned through like 3 diaries of emo teenage sobbing about if Cas likes him and why isn’t he returning his calls or texts in the last month, and he’s been on a rollercoaster of angst about it all and now Cas is back it’s like wtf does he even CARE i thought he said he LOVED us how can he be so heartless FML *sounds of Evanescence playing from Dean’s room* *sam does not ask*

And Cas pulls that Cas face he does when Dean gets like this (I mean they were standing around the table almost like this in 8x22 when Dean ripped into Cas, and again in 11x07… Never mind how Dean was acting in 12x10 at the start where, yep, Cas comes in just like in 8x22. War room table. Where the family goes to have its wars :P)

12x10 already subverted this while we were on the middle of the season emotional development phase of the story, so we’ll see how it goes here

-

Dean’s complaints about being ditched and ignored are definitely straight from his diary

-

“What the hell’s wrong with you, man?”

*Cas can’t answer*

Dean’s like, whatever, and storms off to his room

*sounds of Evanescence playing even louder while he writes a few more pages in his diary*

-

BMoL like  “well we got some useful intel, but we need to edit so much romantic tension out of this before we can show it to the higher ups”

-

I suppose Cas can’t answer because he’s lying and for some reason or another everything sucks and what’s wrong with him presumably boils down to the problem of home and family and whatever was put to him in Heaven, which I assume is directly relating to his conflict about home and family. The fact he can’t answer is a very literal demonstration of him being trapped between all this and not able to answer. For whatever reason he’s come back/been allowed to come back/been sent back, he is still stuck on their offer and walking into Dean throwing an almighty strop about Cas’s absence and how much it’s hurt him not to have Cas there… Not good for his ability to immediately answer.

[note with hindsight: okay don’t normally do this but the episode INTENTIONALLY wiped this off the slate and it’s not even a useful tangent thought. Guess this was left over what we were meant to be feeling (Kelvin asks Cas this in 12x15 after all which WAS the last word we had on it) but Cas has already made up his mind and his declaration of his motivations in this episode made this pretty obvious in hindsight that it was just what the angels THOUGHT Cas might be motivated by still but he really has gone all in with the Winchesters - of course only at the point it can get thrown away by other factors, and choices… Did have some other thoughts about Cas not being sure he belonged so a more subtle way of analysing it that Cas was realising he might not BELONG belong, but he would have to act to protect Dean from afar, and the cost of his friendship - well, Dean was ALREADY pissed at him so Cas will do what he has to >.>]

Also. Cas got all of Dean’s calls. So, like, that’s the same as 8x02 and “I prayed to you, every night!” “I know”

And while we’re here, of course I shouldn’t bring this in but what was Amanda Tapping around for during season 8, but pretty much entirely the Destiel scenes - and in this case, “you’re hoping Castiel will return to you… I only wish he felt the same way” - now Cas returns and to Dean it seems like, well, he doesn’t feel the same way.

-

Dean hides in his room. He’s not listening to Evanescence. He’s doing some more angry searching for Kelly or whatever. WHATEVER *pouts harder*

Cas knocks, doesn’t get an answer, and comes in anyway. In 10x03 he knocks and waits until Dean invites him to come in - a much more sensitive situation where he was concerned about how Dean felt in a way where Dean was sad and fragile. He’s being a bit fragile now, in a slightly more ridiculous way, but Cas is just gonna barge in now. This isn’t Cas being “such an angel” about doors (re: 9x22 and Gadreel barging in on Metatron, hi Dabb) which was something we were discussing after 10x03 and how Cas had a, well, not-angelic approach to doors. Cas CHOOSES to ignore the lack of invitation and barge in anyway and when it comes to Cas and social nuances, it’s always worth pointing out what he does and doesn’t already know.

[edit with hindsight: also - early warning he’s violating the space by not respecting Dean’s privacy and that this WAS an intrusion. I actually didn’t remember to analyse what I thought Cas was up to here, mostly because he WAS acting shifty so I didn’t know what to trust he was doing but not enough to guess what he WOULD do :P]

Also how to know if you still ship the thing: obviously predicted the only reason they’d show Dean in his room after he stomped off alone was if Cas came for a round 2 without Sam around to make it hard to talk, and for them to chat in a more personal, less conflict-y environment. And yet as soon as I see his dumb face on my screen my heart skips.

I think this is only the second time Cas has ever come into Dean’s room, officially, aside from 10x03.

-

Um

-

…

-

*rewinds*

-

D-did Cas just… break up with Dean by giving him back the mix tape they made out to at prom or something

What the fuck

-

*rewinds*

-

“I just wanted to return this”

-

No okay Cas definitely just broke up with Dean by giving him back the mix tape they made out to at prom

-

Why though

-

Why would you even write this into your show

-

“It’s a gift. You keep those.”

Dean you are so broken hearted I’m gonna die

*Evanescence blaring in Dean’s soul at top volume*

-

I’m so tired of being here  
Suppressed by all my childish fears  
And if you have to leave  
I wish that you would just leave  
‘Cause your presence still lingers here  
And it won’t leave me alone  
These wounds won’t seem to heal, this pain is just too real  
There’s just too much that time cannot erase  
When you cried, I’d wipe away all of your tears  
When you’d scream, I’d fight away all of your fears  
And I held your hand through all of these years  
But you still have all of me  
You used to captivate me by your resonating light  
Now, I’m bound by the life you left behind  
Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams  
Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me  
These wounds won’t seem to heal, this pain is just too real  
There’s just too much that time cannot erase  
When you cried, I’d wipe away all of your tears  
When you’d scream, I’d fight away all of your fears  
And I held your hand through all of these years  
But you still have all of me  
I’ve tried so hard to tell myself that you’re gone  
But though you’re still with me, I’ve been alone all along  
When you cried, I’d wipe away all of your tears  
When you’d scream, I’d fight away all of your fears  
And I held your hand through all of these years  
You still have all of me, me, me

-

(“My Immortal” - it seemed fitting :P)

-

Yes I remember being 16. Who doesn’t regret some things.

-

Um I literally don’t have any analysis of their interactions here because my brain shorted out and all I can think of is that this was literally the stupidest thing they’ve ever written if they don’t think Destiel is a thing. I mean look at it.

At some point in the last say 5 years or whatever Dean’s made Cas a mixtape.

-

And then Cas tried to give it back because Dean was a dick to him when he was upset about Cas leaving and not returning his calls.

And Dean was like fuck off it was a present because oh my god what the fuck Supernatural

-

I need to keep watching because I could very easily sit here yelling at the screen for the rest of the day and I only just remembered that Kelly’s off dead or not in a bathtub and there’s real problems here which aren’t these two emo 16 year olds figuring out what a crush is in glacial slow motion.

-

Oh NO there’s a close up on their hands as Cas takes it back. And Cas makes another noise like he might say something and he doesn’t and I’m actually going to CRY with FRUSTRATION

-

Dean actually tries a little to explain why he’s pissed from his POV without resorting to Evanescence lyrics.

“WE didn’t know what had happened to you. WE were worried about you”

Dean you may have missed the recap, but uh, Dean it was all about you missing him. Last episode Sam even was like “he’ll be fine” and you were like “…”

-

“I didn’t mean to add to your distress” you need to not sound sarcastic when you say these things because I know you mean it but you still sound pissed off with Dean and it’s not heeelping

-

Cas breaks my fucking heart talking about how he needed to bring a win back for Dean after failing so many times in a row and then Dean turns around and finally stops giving Cas the cold shoulder (LOL SHOULDERS) and faces him and says Cas isn’t the only one “rolling snake eyes” (I’m quoting just because I love how Dean talks, I don’t have anything profound to say about the gaming reference)

Now Dean is sounding as miserable as Cas

-

wait hang on I just remembered that Dean gave Cas a mixtape

-

They seem to be having a deep conversation challenging each other about if they would kill an innocent, phrased in those terms - I think Cas wants Dean to admit he couldn’t because he’s having doubts, but Heaven would want him to do it and Cas looks to Dean for guidance. Dean mentions how they’ve been researching how NOT to kill the baby to not much luck showing they don’t WANT to but Cas is testing if this is even their last resort. The moral certainty in the situation is all messed up for them. They never want to kill innocents, but Sam at least has done it before intentionally for the sake of saving the world (4x22) and as much as they like finding other ways, the fate of the planet is a pretty strong motivator to go into a morally grey area…

Dean caves and says they’re trying to find another way.

-

We as in you and me, dumbass.

Less dumb, less ass, more trusting couple :3 That’s their un break up get back together code word, because 9x10 put them back together

-

I had the worrying thought Cas gave the mixtape back because he thought DEAN had broken up with HIM and that Cas had to reluctantly return all the things Dean gave him because if they were broken up what would Cas want with them any more they’d just remind him of Deeeean

-

Mittens also suggested to me that it was Cas trying to show Dean that he felt he’d messed up and was trying to apologise and show that he knew he’d hurt Dean and that he didn’t deserve the mixtape any more and this is honestly the worst thing I’ve ever read so I need to try and watch the rest now

-

oh god I shouldn’t have paused where I did because the next thing Dean does is get up, walk into Cas’s space, talk about Team Free Will to Cas’s face and I feel a piece of my soul that has been soaked in bitterness that Cas was unconscious and had no idea Dean called it that sarcastically once a million years ago, has finally been put to rest that Cas is now officially, knowingly, a member of Team Free Will and also that Dean remembered calling it that, apparently thinks of them as it.

It’s so fucking fanservicey but you know what it’s season 12, I fully intend to buy this on DVD when it comes out, I deserve my little TFW loving heart to have some fan service of Dean calling them that again despite it being one of those things where logically I’d say Dean should never repeat it because it was a off-hand comment that got blown all out of proportion by the fandom loving having a thing to call the squad.

(The part of me that makes bad speculative decisions is remembering that Dean used that phrase when he was resisting Michael and was a direct result of talking to him face to face and being told he had no free will - how that relates to the theme of the season is interesting because they’re not facing any direct threat to their free will, apparently. But their choices still matter. Michael’s not coming back. She says loudly and firmly to herself.)

[edit from later: well THERE’S your direct threat to your free will!]

Also it’s including Cas and Dean using that phrase is a strong reminder that it’s not just the brothers Winchester, but that Team Free Will is the main unit of the show - and Dean knows and acknowledges that (and has probably been reading Winchester Gospels meta to try and work out what would be the best songs to give Cas on his mixtape and incidentally picked up the idea the fandom liked calling them that)

[edit from later: reminding Cas he was a member of Team Free Will was fucking inviting that, you take it back Dean Winchester. I hate hindsight-activated dramatic irony]

-

They were standing so close. I think Dean patted Cas’s shoulder briefly on the way out the door. Also once the “official” conversation was over, Dean found it much harder to meet Cas’s eye, probably because they’re that close to kissing if there’s nothing else to discuss.

Dean leaves and Cas is left standing in his room - the camera goes back to his face as he looks mournfully around Dean’s room. Like. At his bed or something idk I’m not an expert

[efl: oh my god]

-

I love Amanda Tapping and Bobo and Glynn. Buying them all a round.

-

Anyway Kelly and Dagon.

-

Oh dear, bloody bathtub, and no sign of Kelly?

She’s sitting in the corner wrapped in something that looks kind of like an American flag or has one in the corner, and is kind of stunned in a I just had a religious experience way about her baby not letting her die. She loves him, is the problem.

Look at all this character complexity wow

-

She spoke to her baby about how they couldn’t be together and they had to die, but the baby saved them both - for now - and honestly she was a religious woman anyway… I wonder if she thinks that the baby preserving its safety in the womb while its not ready to be born is a sign it will protect her and Dagon is wrong and that the baby loves her back… A good cover for if we go back to Buckleming characterisation, Kelly being reluctant and protective of the baby even if she obviously hates being imprisoned and is terrified, we now have a few different sides to her feelings about it explored…

-

*Amanda messing around filming through the bunker railings because they’re fun* this time Sam caught in a circle. He was caught in a triangle in 12x16 so I’m starting to think the theme is that Sam is trapped, in a weird way. Not sure if foreshadowing or representative of his mental state. Obviously he floats around on the surface a lot making head choices instead of heart choices, and they still think they’re working for the BMoL even if it’s shady and weird, they’re still technically ON that decision, or, well, Sam is. Even if this episode is unrelated, the triangle was pretty much for that in 12x16 as far as I could tell, so now it’s just repeating Sam is trapped. As well as sitting at the Bunker table with his feet up so he’s lost 2 tally marks already towards wanton bunker mistreatment and we’re like 10 minutes into the episode…

-

Uhoh, Sam isn’t sleeping. Dean seems to be wandering through the Bunker, hopefully carrying a cloud of “we’re communicating now?” with him. Maybe they will TALK *gasp* *sound of a glass shattering in the otherwise silence*

-

Sam: so we can’t find Dagon  
Me: you better not fuckin say what I think -  
Sam: what if we find the nephilim  
Me: ho don’t do it  
Sam: it’s half-angel  
Me: fuck off Sam   
Sam: remember Gadreel  
Me: EVERY DAY  
Sam: there was a spell  
Me: I FUCKING KNOW   
Sam: I’m an idiot  
Me: Listen we have proposed this idea like every single random plot twist that’s happened since 9x11 and if you say what I think you’re about to say then yes I’m sitting with Dean and judging you from here to ever for this  
Sam: omg how did we forget we had that grace extracting needle thingy in the basement for 3 years  
Me: Because you’re a fucking idiot and I love you but you need to know.

I watched 9x10-12 very recently, like, this week recently, and I am distressed and Sam is predictable if you have been screeching through the walls of reality at him for a few weeks - apparently he heard me

-

Sam is also sitting in the library, not in the exact place he was in 9x10 in his head, but Dean just went to get a beer and came found him and in 9x10 imaginary Dean yelled at Sam if he wanted a beer and didn’t show up so this somehow folded the entire thing back in on itself and this is why Dabb era agitates my migraines

-

I just can’t believe that for once in our fuckin’ lives we were like what if this happened and then a few weeks later on the show Sam’s like wait what if we actually did the thing that the fans all instantly decided we should do

-

Dean’s “yay we found another way!” look

-

Cas isn’t in his room (CAS HAS A FUCKING ROOM IN THE BUNKER PARADE) and I am so baffled because I thought that he was still in Dean’s room chilling on Dean’s bed waiting for him to get back with the beers that I couldn’t understand why Dean even thought Cas was in another room.

I mean to be fair the show has been so fan fictiony I can be allowed to forget that Dean supposedly wouldn’t forget that

-

shoving aside my mistaken idea Cas was still in Dean’s room, Dean gets a whole lot of sad music while staring mournfully into Cas’s room after Cas was last seen staring mournfully into Dean’s room

-

TBH Dagon’s starting to sound more and more like an overbearing helicopter parent who has the whole plan for lil Satan Jr’s life. Does mother know best? It’s literally a debate of interpretation coming from their desires - Dagon wants him to be an evil monster who takes over the world and consumes everything. Kelly just wants him to be a regular kid (and Sam and Dean have maybe hit on the way to do that) and interprets his actions as loving her back and using his powers for good.

I suppose if Satan jr isn’t evil then it’ll be a story about mother’s love being right, which could be interesting with where the Mary stuff goes. I still hope there’s a reckoning about Sam and Mary and the Azazel deal which of course this mirrors even if so far it’s been a bit weird about it because it’s just kind of over there happening. Sam got to explore this with Magda and the Hitler’s great niece thing, and came to the same conclusion they weren’t evil, whatever their family or powers were. And same for himself, something he had to cope with (the Hitler episode makes more sense now with the nephilim story). Now we have the nephilim and Sam has been keeping himself up at night until he hit on a way to give it a chance from birth to be good and uncorrupted, like he never got.

Dagon’s talking about being right at the baby’s side, about nurturing and loving him - being at his side to help him kill everything, like a mother should. Now we have Dagon actively competing to be the other mother figure, the evil one. Kelly and Dagon as like, shoulder angel and demon to the baby. Two competing motherly instincts. Possibly representative of the torn loyalties/actions Mary’s been through, from her deal with Azazel through to deciding to work with the BMoL and all the Ketch stuff, on the Dagon side, and her genuine love for Sam and Dean and wanting what’s best for them on the Kelly side. As a metaphor for her entire influence on their lives and the story of the show, the Dagon side has utterly won out, as her deal took her from Sam and all she could do was offer one “sorry” as a ghost (the loving, ineffectual Kelly side), before Sam was left to the vulnerability of being jerked around by demons and eventually by Lucifer himself until he was possessed by him. But Kelly has a trust in the baby’s nature, and Sam is inherently good, although tbh I may be forgetting everything but has this literally not been addressed from Mary’s POV since 12x03 (hi Berens) where her idea of Sam and Dean were represented with the little 4 year old ghost for Dean, and the FREAKY MONSTER BABY in the crib? I was so sure there’d be a deeper exploration of Mary’s issues with this - that Sam had been made into a monster and what he’d been through. Kelly having a moment where she is so convinced by Dagon’s words that the baby is a monster that she’d rather kill herself to take it out with her, might mirror the sort of revulsion Mary COULD have, even for a moment, learning what Sam was made into. But Kelly loves the baby anyway and trusts its nature and intentions.

We’ll see who’s right.

-

Cas cas cas cas

-

He never looks happy. I can never tell when he’s just grumpy or actually worried about something.

-

But in this case, yeah he stole the Colt :P Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal.

-

Blah blah stuff I was saying about homes and loyalties. And now I get why Mittens was suggesting he gave the tape back as an apology - he knows Dean will be mad about what he’s about to do, and already IS mad at Cas for how he’s acted so far, so really what hope does Cas have of escaping with Dean’s good opinion after doing what needs to be done (he hasn’t said it yet but pfft I’m deep in season 9 now, that phrase haunts me). If he WAITED he’d know Sam hit on an answer and they could have TFW’d it, but his loyalty to Heaven has confused things. This is 6x21 I guess - Cas comes in to have an emotional conversation with Dean at the end of 6x20 but in 6x21 Bobby reveals he stole important lore he had on opening Purgatory - in fact, it WAS the lead Cas needed to get the thing done. So we’re still on the season 6 repeat, but of course Cas is more reasonable even if he’s conflicted right now and seeming to pick Heaven (mostly because he’s conflicted and even if Dean’s pissed at Cas he makes it really super clear he loves him and sees him as part of the team as well - now for Cas to catch on :P) … I think there’s time for Cas to come around that he didn’t have in season 6 as this is earlier in the season.

-

UGH Cas you need to change your phone background. WHY is it still the Buddy Boyle cloudburst. Did you steal your phone from an angel you killed back in season 9 or something? I mean I know you have a new phone since then so why do you keep using that background???

dear art department,

get a new picture of the sun coming from behind a cloud, seriously,

love from,

someone who re-watches season 9 all the time

-

Anyway that’s a lot of missed calls and texts from Dean - after that apology, right back to doing the same thing.

The fact Cas takes his phone out and looks each time while it rings out is just awful

the decisive way he hits the reject call button and tucks his phone into his inside pocket, next to his heart - and where he was keeping the mix tape

-

Kelvin literally spelling out “You’re doing the right thing, putting angelkind above the Winchesters” pfft

pointing out someone is doing the right thing as a reassurance IMMEDIATELY says there’s a conflict whether this is the right thing or not, and then he makes it clear that Cas is putting angels above the Winchesters I mean, this is basic :P Cas belong with the Winchesters, heaven is manipulating him, he needs constant reassurance it’s the right thing while being torn by all the love and family and having a room and Dean making him mixtapes…

But then Cas turns it around that he isn’t dealing with this conflict at all, actually, and he’s like, I’m doing this FOR the Winchesters (that word again - “for” - what Cas uses every time he makes a decision, and while dealing with the consequences, explains that it was FOR them, or has someone else tell him it was all FOR Dean or whatever (hi Metatron). He is putting them above everything again, like he did in 12x09 when he killed Billie - he’d rather do something reckless and stupid to keep them AWAY from a problem that could get them hurt, and he will lose their trust and faith but know they’re alive and well… Same deal in season 6, never coming to them. “where were you when I needed to hear it?” - well, giving you back your fucking mixtape because it is a symbol that we love and trust each other and don’t take that back even when we hurt each other.

I think the problem is Cas still feels like an angel to them (Mittens is watching 6x20 over there and mentioning it just enough to drive me crazy :P) - he still considers himself the Winchesters’ guardian… Aka he is an angel who will outlive them and he just wants them, from an abstract, faraway place, to be happy and well… He will sacrifice anything to get that done but Dean (and Sam) just want him around hanging out with them, as part of the family unit, TFW working together on a problem and doing it the hard way as long as it means honest, together, and as a team. And for Cas to be integrated into the family, and maybe there are easier shortcuts (the lazy way to kill the monster is just to bring the Colt along instead of doing extra research to figure out a better way - the theme of the season being better ways) but better to do things the harder way and get the better result and to all love and trust each other at the end of the day and to feel happy in what we did, not sick and morally compromised.

(I really hope Dean admitting he wanted to find a better way as a way of saying he didn’t want to kill the nephilim is the guidance Cas needed - that this subverts the “i watched you rake leaves” thing but… aaaah)

-

Anyway Cas’s face when he says he’ll kill the girl so they don’t have to… CAS the call you rejected was because they FOUND THE BETTER WAY

-

Also not for nothing but the Colt can’t kill Lucifer - how confident are we it can kill his kid?

-

But pfft Joshua thinking Cas is doing it to save his reputation - that he cares about the Winchesters more than Heaven - and Cas is like pfft screw my reputation in Heaven I’m doing this to protect Sam and Dean from tarnishing their lovely little souls.

-

pfft

-

hey a redshirt angel showed up

-

Cas leading a bunch of angels while holding the Colt. I am confused about how much I like this. I don’t like it at all because of what he’s doing but it’s also sort of cool to see Cas at work doing stuff by himself (ish) like how he naturally leads angels, how he has the Colt (and the angels follow his lead because he has 1000x the experience of them put together but the lil baby has shot one shotgun once in his whole life… uh.)

-

We need the gun range scene where Dean teaches Cas to shoot

-

I like that Dagon is watching TV though. I mean she has a pretty boring job tbh - she has to wait out a pregnancy and she’s confident the baby she wants to survive will survive and she doesn’t care about the mother’s survival so what else is there to do but watch TV

-

Seriously, Cas is still just sneaking through the house and I have no idea if he knows how to shoot it or even hold it. The one promo pic of him with it wasn’t super inspiring. I sort of feel like he’s going to waste a bunch of bullets.

Be hilarious if he had an Eileen parallel since that was even in the recap and Eileen and Cas were paralleled so much in 12x17 - why wouldn’t Cas have an epic slo mo but Dagon dissolves away and random redshirt angel gets it? :P

-

LOL Cas shot and she disappeared

-

*awards self some chocolate*

-

He didn’t get the slo mo or kill the other guy but I’ll fuckin’ take it

-

now he has to decide, Dagon or Kelly as the second bullet?

-

Or just give up now and maybe she’ll let them go because it’s hilarious to watch them run

-

oh look Dagon’s about to kill the red shirt

anyway Cas was lining up another shot at her while she was distracted - prioritising killing her over killing Kelly - and then Kelvin stops him and tells him to find Kelly. Obviously to kill her, but I feel like Cas is gonna make off with her if the promo pics are anything to go by - tempted by the idea of a better way? Just can’t kill her? I should prrroobably just watch… No point speculating things randomly when I don’t have any meta ideas for why that aren’t obvious :P

Kelvin is pretty brave to leap into that fight - I hope he doesn’t get dusted

-

Cas holding the gun at hip height also means he’s shooting at Kelly’s stomach if he can fire

-

He did change the way he was holding it from the other times so I think that’s very symbolic now.

-

Also the camera is making Cas into the monster, and Kelly is terrified :<

-

Yep she remembered his name and Cas bottled out of killing her and made off with her. Which I think also bought Kelvin some screen time because Dagon was too busy realising her captive was unattended to finish him off.

Cas had Kelly at his mercy and couldn’t do it, so I suppose now he calls up the Winchesters and fesses up?

-

This is the halfway point of the episode

-

Oh look now Cas has betrayed them, SAM gets to make the call - 7x01 there, Dean stops reaching out to Cas, Sam does it instead because Dean is feeling too betrayed and hurt to deal with it. The first call was probably “dude where are you, we found a better way” but this is immediately post betrayal

-

When the animated japanese erotica thing came up again in 12x06, I did not seriously credit that we’d get a repeat of the whole shebang :P

-

Dabb era, man. Fuckin’ Dabb era

-

Anyway Dean’s angrily loading guns which he does when he’s pissed

-

Pfft Dean and the Colt… it’s a thing. He had it under his pillow. So Cas WAS staring longingly at Dean’s bed and wanted the uh, phallic gun that was under it. The gun that Dean’s trying to absorb into his own being because he has such a thing for waving the phallic gun around and wanting to shoot it.

Pfffffffft.

And he feels used because Cas came into his room and took something private and trusted from his bed - they had a MOMENT and Dean dared to express his love for Cas and… this is how Cas repaid him.

Listen this is why I don’t speculate: the little clip of Dean looking pissed when they meet Cas at the motel? Way past the halfway point because I haven’t even seen it yet. Dean isn’t pissed because Cas hasn’t talked to them for months and that’s the first time he sees him. He’s pissed because he made Cas a mixtape, Cas tried to give it back, then Dean professed his love, and Cas betrayed the trust of his BED.

Dean is a lover spurned and he wants to kick Cas’s butt for it - he starts talking about Cas being “feathery” and turning him back into an angel (or junkless or whatever) whenever he’s really pissed. The more he’s happy with Cas the more human he is (“morning, sunshine, want some coffee?”) and the more upset and spurned he is the more his language refers to Cas as an angel and all the shit Dean’s said about them since season 4 comes back up.

And he pointedly packs an angel blade. I mean, he’s seriously feeling violated by this >.>

-

Sam plays the mediator a lot because Dean and Cas can be so fucking unreasonable about each other because they’re emo teenagers when it comes to their feelings for each other. It’s not Sam’s personality, per say, it’s just he had to watch his brother say he’ll kick Cas’s ass while packing an angel blade and Sam has to be like “!!! no !!!”

-

“He came into my room and he played me” “He played us both”

^ Sam popping up in the background “and Sam!”

Just… the fact Sam is so tacked on after Dean and Cas had a deep personal moment about the fucking mixtape Dean made Cas (I haven’t stopped grinning since that happened and it’s really affecting how I view this episode). Sam just isn’t personally violated after a deep emotional moment.

“He came into my room”

I mean

It’s so PERSONAL

(You’re talking by the war room table - bad idea)

And that could mean anything to Sam - he doesn’t know it was JUST about the mixtape, and that Cas essentially was relying on Dean storming out the room as he usually does when he talks to Cas to get the Colt. I mean, Dean n Cas could have had a wild make up sex moment, and then Dean went off to get beer and left Cas lying in his bed, where he just so happened to get his hands on the Colt. Sam doesn’t know the details of this violation :P

(But, ignoring the gross romantic overtones of what ACTUALLY happened, this is how it’s playing)

-

*Cas angry driving*

-

Kelly trying to make light of the fact Cas didn’t murder her, like, thanks, you came in and pointed a gun at me but then bottled out and somehow it’s still the best thing that happened to me all day.

-

Cas looks sadder than ever. “Please don’t thank me. I had a mission and I failed.” Now he’s got all emotionally messed up by not wanting to kill an innocent, Sam and Dean are in trouble, and he knows the ball is back in their court if he can’t do the one thing he thought he had to to make this go away for them. His sadness is that they’re going to get entangled in this again one way or the other. And instead of feeling like he took the moral high ground, and that it’s good he didn’t kill Kelly, it’s just another list of failures this season - the vampire hunt, not finding Sam and Dean in prison, letting Kelly get away the first time, probably a ton of feelings of blame for all the other episodes where they didn’t have stunning results that he was involved in like 12x07, 12x10, 12x12…

“And now I don’t know” - Cas not knowing what to do is when he panics. He likes knowing what to do :< He has a wee bit of a bad track record when he doesn’t know what to do with himself, whether it’s because something else latches onto his lack of direction, or he leaps into a bad decision by himself…

-

Dagon lying to Lucifer - does that even work?

Nope.

“Which one?”  
“Castiel”  
*Lucifer literally breaks down into hysterical despairing laughter* I think he never wants to hear that name again…

he called Cas a “purse dog” which is even worse than the normal dog references levelled at Cas. Yikes.

-

That was actually not a cringeworthy scene, maybe because Lucifer and Crowley weren’t talking :P

-

Is Cas actually trying to call Sam and Dean?

-

Nope, he called Joshua. Oh dear, he was getting orders. He sounds so season 4. And that defeated tone of voice as he recites to Kelly how she has to die.

(Oh no, Cas actually EXPLAINING what would happen if a human stepped through the gate with the sort of technical detail nerds eat up, and Cas sounding all cosmic and like it’s not weird at all to casually contemplate what would happen to your atoms when you tried to go through a gate to Heaven that wasn’t meant to let you through… I’ve always loved physics professor Cas, especially a non-AU one where he just goes to teach it because why not.)

-

“Your child could bring the universe to its knees”  
“Or lift it to its feet. This baby - nothing is born evil”   
“I can’t take that chance. None of us can.”

*flails at these lines* I’m starting to like Kelly. She’s arguing a pretty simplistic POV but it’s one in line with the whole Team Free Will thing and the idea of hope - this season has had a lot of hope and hopelessness. The 3rd way isn’t mentioned - that it’s a normal baby and Kelly goes to live a regular life and all the powerful forces lose interest in her and the baby… In a way Cas’s POV is mired in years of trauma and saving the universe and making complicated shades of grey decisions and harsh choices for the greater good, or, well, for Dean. Because of Dean. Everything always about Dean.

-

I don’t WANNA make everything about Destiel but “none of us can” is about Dean, and Dean made Cas a mixtape and everything is awful

-

Poor Kelvin.

-

“W W C D - what would Castiel do?” that’s the weirdest Jesus imagery attached to Cas but I kind of want one of those rubber bracelets they used to hand out with phrases like that on :P

of course what Cas would do is the big question, and so far he’s been pretty reliably unreliable and making bad decisions out of heart

-

Too much heart etc

-

*Cas closes all the blinds and moves Kelly around.* He’s sort of acting like a prison guard too.

-

Kelly describing how she killed herself - also great dialogue and acting… Wow I’m really starting to like her. They’re having to work with her being a bit of a religious ditz in some respects - interpreting it as a miracle and using that word - but they’re making up for so much lost time with her characterisation and filling in the person behind all the being dragged around. Kelly has HOPE and LOVE for her baby and felt its power as goodness… Then she speaks just a little too long and stops sounding sure and starts sounding like she just wishes it was a miracle/is the sort of person prone to believing in them, and a plan, a higher power, which has been utterly debunked since season 5 and we have to know that as an audience that she’s talking too far into her simplistic ideas unaffected by the gritty reality of Heaven and Hell in this world. I mean sure she’s got such a simple view on it all but she’s got a stance and she’s been through a change and she’s sticking with it.

Cas listening to all this - the way his face moves when she talks about giving up and killing herself. Oh no. He understands :< And it’s her talking about a higher power that gets him to sit down and talk to her.

Cas talking about his season 4 self and then saying they’re all “winging it” oh no oh no.

Oh noooo

And now he has to describe that Lucifer has no plan and that unlike Sam, born to a great destiny after a huge amount of manipulation to meet what seemed to be the originally described destiny of the universe since it was created, as per God, Kelly has this devil baby for no reason except Lucifer passing on the existential angst he’s suffering since existing outside of The Plan

-

Really, Raphael was extremely ahead of the curve in having a massive existential crisis about wtf you do when you run out of story. Cas seemed to think it was an optimistic thing at the start of season 6 according to 6x20, and the rope you hang yourself with when you have free will by the end of it. But this season, after God left and wrote his final manuscript and all the stuff with Metatron and writing was cleared away - there’s REALLY no story left and season 12, literally another half of the show later, is getting back to this freak out.

-

“I’m sorry. You were just there.”

-

That did sound really heavy-handed that Cas might end up having to protect the nephilim if it’s born and Kelly dies, and that she was seeing Cas as a potential guardian…

Of course then Cas puts his hand on her stomach when she makes him, smiles a bit despite himself, because, idk, the miracle of life… But then either Lucifer or the baby uses that contact to see stuff - the conflict at the portal I guess. With yellow eyes roar-y sound effects.. I guess Lucifer or Dagon will learn this, and the nephilim is working against Cas and Kelly…

-

*brief interlude where we have a guest for dinner so I disappear for ages*

ANYWAY I need to get back to this  
I was interrupted right as Cas and Kelly were having an EPIC conversation about choice  
it’s killing me :P

mittensmorgul  
good luck. I’ve got it paused about 2/3 of the way through

elizabethrobertajones  
Cas just had his hand put on the tummy - forcefully - and he smiled but actually something bad appears to have happened  
because her eyes lit up and did the demon roary sound effecct

mittensmorgul  
RIGHT?!

elizabethrobertajones  
I think the nephilim is spying on them for Lucifer >.>  
idk if that proves it’s evil  
or if he just has a magic connection??  
and it’s being exploited and the poor baby is a tool as well  
WHO KNOWS  
theeeemes

-

Anyway I guess they both sensed that - I don’t think Kelly is evil but Cas seems to have maaaaybe seen what it saw? Got a premonition for free?? Who knows. Coming right after the talk about Cas being a potential guardian I think the vision showed him protecting her, so it may be pretty significant that he’s going to be their guardian… The vision MAY be benign in some senses for THEIR conversation even if it seems kind of dangerous that that might be how Dagon finds them at the portal by having a vision OF her attacking them at the portal or something

-

Thinking of happening to find people, Dean is at the door. Knock knock, that’s my gun.

-

Woah finally a circumstance to flip that time Cas slammed Dean against a wall

They’re framed in the circle this time - interesting we had Sam alone in one circle and Dean and Cas in a charged situation in the other circle

-

Sam and Dean have both chosen to wear their best jackets for this

-

Uh, anyway. Argh, Cas getting pushed against the wall and just kind of going and watching Dean, and Dean’s so angry, and Cas is just… letting him shove him around. I think letting is the operative word. These days angels aren’t quite so iron rigid that like 4x22 you punch them and it makes a clang if they don’t want to get punched. But yeah. Cas is still an angel, and he didn’t HAVE to get shoved harmlessly against the wall. He could push back, but he KNOWS he did something that would piss Dean off, and he’s just gonna ride it out and take the blame and take the punishment… The mission isn’t finished yet so he would probably do anything to make sure it was, but only with the “for Dean” tick box checked, that it wouldn’t hurt Dean in the process >.>

-

elizabethrobertajones  
HOLYC RAP SAm was suspicious THE ENTIRE TIME??  
He put the tracking thing on Cas’s phone while Dean was being “scammed” out of the Colt  
because dean let his guard down and fell for Cas’s little moment with the tape  
and he was over-emotional about  keeping the Colt close

mittensmorgul  
yep

elizabethrobertajones  
and Sam saw something fishy about the way Cas wouldn’t look them in the eye and managed to 10 steps ahead Cas  
while Dean was giving him heart eyes and calling him a “dumbass”

mittensmorgul  
yep, but Cas was looking Dean in the eye. A lot.

elizabethrobertajones  
sweet sweet eye love making  
Ugh :P  
Dean only looked away at the end when he said he was going to get a beer and I think he was gonna kiss Cas if he didn’t distract himself

mittensmorgul  
yeah

elizabethrobertajones  
I wonder if Cas’s plan B was fall into bed with Dean, grab the colt when he was distracted  
last night on earth their relationship  
like yeah he’ll never trust me again but

mittensmorgul  
oh no  
wait for Dean to nod off and then grab the gun and run

elizabethrobertajones  
sorry that’s kind of morbid :P  
but yeah

mittensmorgul  
D:

elizabethrobertajones  
>.>  
Okay I hate that but I sort of think it was somewhere on Cas’s plans >.>  
he’s heaven’s greatest strategist after all  
went in there with a goal to distract Dean and get the Colt at whatever cost (friendship wise) to protect Dean in the long term

mittensmorgul  
yeah, I don’t think he counted it out as a possibility

elizabethrobertajones  
I wrote a long thing about how he still sees himself as their guardian and not quite sure about being their friend, after you reminded me of 6x20

mittensmorgul  
Yeah, because he could live with Dean not trusting him, as long as DEAN WAS ALIVE to not trust him…

elizabethrobertajones  
or at least he’s not sure he can trust he’d be their BFF

mittensmorgul  
yeah

elizabethrobertajones  
but he CAN do huge gestures from afar that protect them even if it’s at the cost of their relationship  
the abstract concept of alive winchesters matters to Cas in an angel-y way

-

“She’s difficult to kill, okay?!” “you think?” yeah they’re all struggling with this at the moment :P All having the same encounters but apart and coming to the same BLOODY OBVIOUS conclusions

gosh maybe WORKING TOGETHER is the answer

-

Oh gosh Cas isn’t the babysitter

…

…

…

*obligatory fandom reference despite the fact Cas has never brought pizza to the bunker which tbh now I think about it is really rude of him and probably on Dean’s list of reasons he’s currently pissed at Cas*

-

Anyway Cas tries to do the same speech he’s done in 12x09 about how he wants to protect them and keep them safe and so he does dumbass things to do so

Dean’s like WHEN ARE WE EVER SAFE. LAST WEEK A BLOOD-DRINKING GOD HAD ME KNOCKED OUT AND SARAN-WRAPPED IN A MEAT LOCKER AND THAT WAS A NORMAL THURSDAY NIGHT

-

The answer is for Cas to come on all the MotW to hold his hand

[edit from future!me: you’re always right when you’re sarcastic trope x what you expect but not how you expected it]

-

At least he’s being honest about his motivations.

-

… Dean has no way of knowing it’s a sandbox unless Cas told them, so there’s that for off-screen communication.

Kelly has a “sandbox!” moment of realisation of what she saw… Was it Cas protecting her from Dagon or the angels she wonders?

-

“We’ve found another way!” “which you’d know if you answered the phone” I love when episodes answer my own meta neatly within the time limit :P No loose end on that one.

Cas having the similar ?!?!? moment of realising how silly they were to forget about this.

I mean he has grumpy quibbles about it and holy crap in my 9x11 rewatch I got so distracted by how the needle was not just extracting gadreel’s grace but the left over god crap in Sam (as I realised the trials and mark of cain were essentially EXACTLY the same thing from 2 different ends of the spectrum - big helping of Chuck mojo to wield his power, being helping of Amara mojo to wield her power. Sam flashed back to doing the trials - to significantly EARLY in doing the trials, right back to 8x17.) and I wondered if that was screwing with the results, and also why the spell failed.

It’s not like a woah angel fall spell revelation but it was something I was wondering about and honestly after sitting around wondering about the mechanics of it for an afternoon just for kicks a while back, the fact this is all back in the spotlight is really making me laugh

-

Anyway, Kelly’s not up for it >.>

Come back Kelly

-

She thinks both of them dying together (which she was aiming for at the start but for bad reasons but also self-sacrificing reasons which are still motivating her here, that she’d go with Cas to protect everyone) is better than living but with her baby just being a regular old human baby. Dean values humanity above anything - “at least he dies human!” he said about Sam in 4x21 when Bobby suggested detoxing would kill him. If there’s a chance for them to LIVE human then that’s the happy dream ending, the case solved, random humans can go back to their lives like nothing happened DREAM for Dean so he thinks Kelly has lost her mind. She’s working on very different principles here and agreeing with Cas about what to do but not why - Cas just wants to protect humanity (and by humanity - yeah you know the drill)

-

If Cas steals the impala too I’m going to scream.

-

“it’s like herding cats”

-

I love when Dean and Cas have long staring competitions though.

Cas seems to agree to talk and drags Kelly off in much the same way as Dagon dragged her off. Even though they agree and he is seeming to be protective of her, and LIKES Kelly and sees her as a person now (despite his original intention to just shut his eyes and kill her)… but yeah, still just the other side of the coin of Heaven and Hell pulling her around and controlling her.

-

*camera takes its eye off Cas*

-

*whoops back on it to watch Misha fumbling catching the keys* I wonder how many takes before Amanda gives up and is like fine we’ll use that one - at least you CAUGHT them

-

huh, he gets in the back. That is NOT what I was expecting.

-

What the heck Cas you don’t just throw the keys to Kelly

Now she’s gonna steal the car

-

okay so like I said, things are predictable but not how you expect… Dabb era in a nutshell and also cars are involved

-

I wonder if Cas didn’t immediately stop Kelly stealing the car because he knows they’re both indestructible but the car isn’t and Dean is in the mood where he will actually stab Cas if the car gets busted up.

-

There’s something a lot like Hael here, which is how Cas’s story all started with the character reboot of human Cas (he never recovered from it emotionally; Cas between 8x23 and 9x01 are more different than 9x01 and now Cas in some ways)

But yeah, the “where are you going?” “heaven and I’ll make you tell me how to go there” thing - it’s the same assured way Hael uses to talk about how they’ll go see the grand canyon and then she’ll possess him.

-

And he hopes he can talk her out of it. He agreed to talk to Dean about options but Kelly has decided what is best for her and her kid - to go to Heaven, where she’s clearly imagining a Mary’s Heaven she left behind scenario of chillaxing with her baby even though Heaven doesn’t work like that. Now he can’t talk to Dean about options but he’s stuck in the car with Kelly… all he can do is talk if he doesn’t want to crash the car

-

oh no Lucifer must have been talking to her pretending to be the baby. Weird contradictory if I go with your plan (to go to Heaven and be obliterated) then you’d make sure my son is born? And she thinks it was talking to her. Now it’s full on creepy if it was ACTUALLY the baby, but… I suspect foul play

-

Oh why does Cas never get anything good. We have the exact same Hael situation except at least Hael wasn’t being controlled/manipulated (can we retcon all of Kelly’s silly actions were because of this?) and just had no idea how to want things in a human non-creepy way and seemed to think what she wanted was good in a rational angel way. But Kelly has a ton of confidence all of a sudden, like… a divine purpose, but obviously not :P And suddenly all that stuff about protecting her child? That seemed really sweet and nice when she and Cas were talking person to person before the creepy stuff started? Now she wants to FORCE it on him and give him no choice. She’s in the driver’s seat in a stolen car, making the demands, and now she’s taken choice out of the equation >.>

-

Anyway Kelly really wants a guardian angel but Cas already has his hands full with the bloody Winchesters

hijacking their angel too

-

Cas continues to have his existential crisis and instead of pointing out some legit complaints about being abducted and forced into it, he lists even more of his failures that he’s accrued since the LAST time he was listing all of his failures

this is like… the worst day ever for Cas, and he once got stabbed with a thing meant to kill angels by turning them into black foam from the inside out :P

-

He betrayed his friends - his FAMILY

-

Holy shiiiit Kelly is talking about her PAST and who she was before she was the container for Lucifer’s baby what is thiiiis?

*low bar leapt over with style*

-

“I wish I had your faith” “You will” Oh gosh those are creepy lines from her. And tragic ones from Cas. Because he really has no faith any more in anything because he knows that the higher powers are on holiday and the original plan ended 6 years ago and everything since has been a series of over-reacting disasters usually his fault.

-

I am so pleased that the Kelly actress (who I don’t even know the NAME of because she’s been so insignificant that no one talks about her and presumably so hated she’s keeping a low profile) has actually had stuff to do… I hope people weren’t predisposed to hate her because she’d done nothing so far and were willing to give her a chance with better writers, because as a salvage job on her character this isn’t half bad. She’s still doing really irrational stuff but she’s by now clearly being manipulated, and her actual moments of character stuff outside of that are actually exploring who she is, what she wants, and how this has changed her, working within the pretty crappy bounds of this story but at least giving the actress stuff to work with and the character some depth.

-

Anyway Dean hates Cas’s truck :<

I mean it’s symptomatic of this current break up where Cas tried to give the mixtape back and all but

(I split up with my angel boyfriend and all I got in the divorce was this shitty truck)

-

elizabethrobertajones  
OH NO Dean’s sympathetic to Cas’s pliiiiiiight even while he’s piiiisssed  
“he’s so desperate for a win he can’t even see straight”

mittensmorgul  
I KNOW

elizabethrobertajones  
and that’s while being totally furious at him

mittensmorgul  
SCREAMING FOREVER

elizabethrobertajones  
and Sam has no idea  
and Dean’s keeping a tally of all the miserable stuff Cas has been through

-

Uhoh, the Heaven portal.

Why do I have a feeling this is going to go terribly.

Cas can get a win on HIS terms if he thinks/knows Kelly will be obliterated by doing this (and he asks if she’s sure). She thinks she’s about to - I have no idea, but survive this and have her baby so SHE’S sure about what SHE thinks this is about.

and will totally not give Cas his win

but he’s kind of been manhandled into doing this

so

does it even count even if it WORKED

which it won’t

-

“As long as you’re here I know it’s going to be okay”

*Cas like ….*

-

Ew why is Joshua this random white bloke

-

Okay so he did die instantly, which would have been shitty if it had been the other guy or ANY black dude as a hasty re-casting (especially as we have no idea how Kelvin is at this point but I’m guessing NOT GOOD) buuut even so :P

I mean it was intentionally meant to be a record scratch end that idea moment that Heaven was really going to be up for much or have any useful sway on this, or that Josha was meant to be anything… But ugh :P Well, on the whole I guess bland white guy getting insta-killed is better than a black dude being pointlessly added to their tally, but Joshua was the last named angel in Heaven, really cool when we actually met him (this doesn’t feel like it counts) and definitely always the cool angel we met that day because it’s so important in that instance. Like yeah this whole onging existential crisis thing - he was the warning sign of that in 5x16 where Cas lost faith that day because of what he said that confirmed the universe was this badly run, and where we are is now deep in the results of the universe having a god that doesn’t care and being a mere 6 years post apocalypse and being run by no one, not even the archangels who’d kept order in the meantime, or the way Joshua had talked to God. And it removes God’s last link here except in the main characters and their new stewardship of the earth, their legacy handed to them by God in 11x23…

-

Mneh, I liked Joshua from 5x16 though and even it fits with this theme of the season and was MEANT to be disappointing, it is hard to separate what the show does wrong from what it does intentionally to unsettle and upset you :P

-

Anyway Dagon doing stuff

-

Does Cas still have the Colt on him - was there even time in all the hassle for Dean to get it back?

-

Aw Kelvin’s dead.

-

Pfft yeah Dean took the Colt and so Cas is going into this with basically nothing

-

Dagon is revealing how it was aaaall a manipulation, apparently including letting Kelly think Cas was supposed to protect her, even to bring her there.

-

“sad fluttering aimless little moth”

Oh she’s distracted picking Cas up to shake him around some more. Maybe Kelly will continue stealing things and take Cas’s angel blade and stab Dagon :P

This episode has done enough to not make it wasteful or annoying to kill her off, since she’s actually been genuinely threatening and terrifying and right now if Kelly kills her it’s a real victory

-

Nope, the shitty truck shows up just in time because Winchesters always have your back and somehow know where your heaven portal is parked

wAIT

10x17 Sam was here before

I’m really starting to lose track of season 10 and need to get on with that rewatch holy crap that was embarrassing.

-

I mean in an episode ABOUT the sandbox and I even thought about Bobbby earlier when Cas was talking about humans not being able to go through it so he did to talk to Bobby, I mean really come on Lizzy

-

Anyway Sam shoots Dagon pointlessly but enough times to make her drop Cas RIGHT as she was about to dust him, and Dagon was talking ironically about showing up in the nick of time

-

Noooooooooooooooo RIP Colt

I did not see Yellow Eyed Demon kills Colt instead of the other way around

It did not die in slow motion which is even more disappointing

-

Aaaaah Kelly powering up Cas

I sort of feel like she’s made him her puppet - that the nephilim has “chosen” Cas because he’s a good conduit for the power. This is very very not good and again because control is being taken away from Cas and it seems so creepy, it’s not a good thing that he’s the guardian. If Kelly’s vision was from the nephilim, Cas is now in a very dangerous situation that her baby likes him and wants to use him while it can’t use its powers for itself.

-

I think it’s awesome a YED died by burning up, not going to lie :P

-

Not sure Cas knows what happened

-

OH NO Cas is talking like he knows his purpose in the world in that kind of calm everything’s great way

Our Cas is a mess who has no idea wtf he’s doing so yeah…

(He did however heal Dean by putting his hand over his arm and catching his thumb under his hand so that’s like 10% of hand holding >.>)

Anyway Dean gets to worry about him.

-

“I know now this child has to be born with ALL of his power” … Yeah that’s exactly what Kelly wanted

Oh boy

-

“I have faith”

Who are you and what have you done to Cas

-

Which can be an actual literal question on this show :P

-

I guess if we’re going with the season 6 parallels this is a kind of creepy godstiel thing going on here but he’s just a conduit to the power and is slightly off to the side as the guardian angel, though I suspect it’s a similar problem >.>

-

LOL we’re not going to let you walk away

*boop*

he does Sam first, of course

“??? Don’t - ”

*boop*

-

CHRIST you didn’t have to drag the moose skull hanging from Cas’s dash OVER SAM that’s SO FUCKING RUDE

-

My dad phoned right at this point so that was bad timing :P

-

ANYWAY that makes me SO WORRIED about Sam. He keeps being isolated and put in little circles and triangles and I’ve been dreading the moose skull omen since 12x01 and now it’s on top of Sam finally. AAAH.

-

Tbh there’s equally scary Dean might die symbolism but the Sam stuff is wigging me out this year :P

-

ANYWAY Cas has lost his agency AGAIN to a Lucifer influence AGAIN

-

Can’t believe Amanda Tapping made Cas leave Dean lying on the floor like… there’s rude and then there’s RUDE.

(I mean Sam was there too but look there was not 1 dead Sam in that warehouse)

I CAN’T BELIEVE AMANDA TAPPING TOOK CAS’S AGENCY AGAIN 

-

Also Sam and Dean lying there pointed away from each other - going different ways.

-

I jokingly wrote to Mittens that Cas is driving off into the future and then remembered that’s how Glynn’s last episode ended and I suddenly think that script ending was shown to us just to tease us because of the Claire and Cas parallel, only Claire’s hopefully going somewhere positive, and Cas… is possibly now an agent of the destruction of the world so that’s all great.

-

Also Lucifer ended up not being involved again at all and it got so sketchy with Cas I’m now starting to think that the baby probably IS as dangerous as they say it is, Cas was paralleled to Dagon and Dagon at the start had her vision of HER place in the world at the baby’s side and that’s what it wants from Cas

and also now I’m thinking about the need to destroy fathers on the show and well a little newborn infant fighting Lucifer would be a bit of a joke but it WOULD be cool if nephilim!Cas went and blew up Lucifer as a threat to its power

I’m gonna think about that for a while :P

-

Also need to go write in Dean making Cas a mixtape to Terrible Coffee AU


	20. 12x20

reblog if AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

expectations: it’s Yockey. Despite that, wee bit nervous he’ll kill off one of the twins or their mom in a kill your darlings move since they’re his original characters and they’re MotW level people even if they’re reoccurring - obvious character mirrors will be obvious, and also the show is having a pretty horrendous time of killing off PoC even for their usual standards. Which, I suppose, is kind of good they’re having a few more roles but it’s still like… that vet from 12x01 is still alive, and the witch twins and their mom, for now…

Still there’s 3 of them, so I’m hoping at least 2 make it out the episode.

-

also just gonna assume since we know nothing that the BMoL are behind it. Kinda terrified Mary is gonna be the MotW and she has no idea what she’s doing, but she’s emotionally tied to Asa and his family, is in this episode, and so far hasn’t really stepped over any of the show’s personal moral lines. Killing a “monster” who is actually a friendly witch/the mother of Asa’s children/one OF Asa’s children since she’s attended a party with them and all, will be a good sort of thing to use to give her current trauma and something for them to use in their arguments about her actions. It also looked pretty clearly like Ketch turns on her/she turns on Ketch and if this happens it would be a good motivation for her to do it - we would EXPECT from what we’ve seen that Ketch would just immediately try to kill her, because he’s been told to, but he seems to be thinking hard about her, and at the very least feeling like her recruitment is at least halfway successful even if she had a ridiculous idea she could do this and still hang out with her own sons - he may at least give her a chance/choice, so the unexpected while it seems he may be the threat and has immediate orders to eliminate the Winchesters, is that Mary lashes out first… Who even knows.

-

Anyway that’s the model of the episode I’ve constructed from spoilers, and I’m not wedded to it all, it just seems to make sense to me with what we see so far… And of course, the only way to know more is to watch, but this is where I’m coming from :P

-

Recap! Dad’s on a hunting trip - immediately back to the start, making me wish this is a backdoor pilot and the dynamic is the witch twins looking for their mom in a mirror to 1x01. Since it’s Dabb era, maybe penance for Bloodlines. Look, I would understand if Dabb burned everything he could find that proved he wrote that episode, but on the other hand maybe he does have room to be contrite about it in the text of the show :P

Then an implication they hunt witches, a lore recap that witches can be evil/get their power from demons, and the Max and Alicia recap that they’re witches that hunt.

Onto the BMoL, reminder of a bug, reminder that Ketch is jealous of Sam’s shiny hair…

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas

-

This is a nice looking house.

-

Heee smart car.

-

Okay I like the mom just because she drives one. She’s a Smart Witch.

… Then she gets Old White Ladied and witchy bitches at her. Okay I love her now. I hope Old White Lady is the bad guy. She’s doing something with yarn, which is not the promised twine from the title, but very possibly is creating a yarn/twine sort of dichotomy for some reason.

Awww Tasha has the twins as her lock screen. “All good?” Alicia asks. Tasha is too busy doing witchy things to answer.

Tentatively assigning her as a Dean mirror since he was the one keeping in contact with Mary at the start of the season, and Max did have a thing for Sam in 12x06, and we should probably just apply the destiel principle that crushes mirror each other.

PURPLE EYES.

I love Tasha even more. I think witchy magic has been coded purple a while - Rowena and Crowley both used stuff with purple effects. Possibly it happened more in witchy Buckleming episodes I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to.

Reminds me the Old White Lady had a purple ring that Tasha commented on.

Randomly a creepy doll in the background. Nephilim-related imagery, because creepy babies, or just a general comment that dolls are creepy. Of course, brings back 2x11 with that hotel, the creepy dolls, and all related issues (Sam having the freak out that he’s a monster, can’t save anyone, and Dean has to kill him if it comes to that - also unrelated, the “why does everyone assume we’re gay” thing - both Tasha and Dean were judged as soon as they walked into the hotels, Dean for being gay, her for being black) which I’ll have to remember to stow away the reference to talk about if they are relevant later…

-

Her pendulum leads her to a basement with the sort of door that looks a LOT like the one most significantly used to keep Sam captive at the start of the season. The fact it reeks is used to show it’s evil - you can see the silhouette of witchy herbs hanging from the rafters, but we don’t get a good look around.

Also ARGH I got attached and now I hate everything. Poor Tasha >.>

-

I mean I kind of figured something horrible happening to her would be the cold open but that was unexpectedly more horrible and harsh than I imagined :<

-

At least the knife was all rusty and gross so probably not a slick BMoL kill.

I suppose the Mary stuff maybe be happening off in a bubble then.

-

This is why you don’t marry your speculation :P

-

Okay so there was stuff I didn’t say last night but wanted to about the scene opening with Dean’s hands after the title card. I thought it might be the opening but I wasn’t totally sure, and if they used it as a reaction shot that would have been even worse in a way. But we start with Dean wringing his hands, or nervously self-soothing by stroking the knuckles of one hand with the other… We leap right into the middle of a conversation with him and Sam about what Cas did, and Dean’s hurt but defending Cas as not being Cas and his decisions being, well, exactly as we all said. Manipulated because the complete turn around on his faith and idea of the nephilim is just too much to credit for being Cas. Dean heard Cas say he has faith and if ANYONE knows how Cas feels about faith, it’s Dean, because over 5x16/17 but all of season 5 up to that point in a way as well, they dealt with a joint storyline about faith, and had it shattered together in 5x16, before the conversation in 5x17 about their fathers which is the key Destiel scene in season 5, really.

And it starts with [this](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D99%26pid%3D47788%23top_display_media&t=Y2UwYTM0ZjM5ZjE4YTY4YjllZDBjMmRhZWZmZmQ4MTBkODQ2ZTk3MyxMb3BGZG5XaA%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F160349267153%2F12x20-watching-notes-reblog-if&m=1):

and now we have

And of course this shattering was because of what Joshua said - who is now dead and aside from serving as an example of not marrying your speculation because this is season 12 and Dabb’s steering the ship like Willy Wonka taking us into the chocolate river tunnel on the candy boat, he is representative of ALL this stuff about faith that happened with Cas and formed his whole arc, to the point of cold shouldering God at the end of the universe, to repeat myself from doing this last week. Now Dean is mirroring this exact position Cas sat in, which I have to feel serves as a tie back to that moment, if only to show it’s part of this story - that Cas had that moment, that Dean witnessed it, bonded with him, tied their lives together over it, and it was a human moment for the both of them in the middle of all the epic apocalypse level shit. Lucifer and armageddon is too much to handle, but absent fathers? Dean knows how to be sympathetic about that :P And so he’s got that human moment tying him to Cas’s faith arc, which has not substantially changed since it broke back in season 5, except that he’s explored his hopelessness and lack of faith from a whole lot of different angles, from trying to be god, to being a human sitting in a church questioning, or trying to pray and feeling disconnected and miserable about it, to refusing to engage with God when he returned.

And for Dean in this moment, mirroring to all that aside, shows how deeply he’s involved in Cas’s side of this argument that he’s not able to represent himself so Dean will speak for him, Dean’s feeling hurt and miserable and needing to self soothe. Like 12x18 opening on Cas’s answerphone and Dean worrying about him, the first thing on screen is an emotional close up of Dean’s hands, his reaction to what Cas did, and basically Destiel immediately into your eyeballs on the word “go”. This close up without words really says EVERYTHING about Dean’s position in this conversation…

-

Sam, meanwhile, does NOT want to comment, and the camera switching to his face, shows he’s conflicted, miserable, and what Dean is saying is deeply troubling him. He doesn’t have a profound bond whatever that’s supposed to be with Cas (to dip into his POV for a sec :P) but he is troubled by what Dean is saying. Whether he thinks Dean is putting too much faith in Cas after being screwed over AGAIN and he feels Dean is just going to get hurt and he’s making excuses for Cas that go too far, or he got a totally different read of it and feels like he KNOWS Cas has committed to this path and troubling as it is, this is the wrong way to talk about it…

Point is, Sam and Dean have two different perspectives on what’s happened, and as usual Dean is powering ahead leading by emotion and also gut instinct and a close understanding of Cas… Sam is being neutral and objective - prepare for the worst, what if Cas really has turned on us, we don’t know how he thinks, maybe Lucifer jr really is that persuasive, etc. He says it doesn’t make any sense but that means he’s NOT wedded to Dean’s reading of the situation.

He says they have to think of what Cas might do/think, to try and predict his actions, feeling like there might be a reasonable reading of what is to come and they can base it on past experience of Cas, and they can make a kind of… plot speculation… on what Cas might do next.

-

Dean however is convinced that Cas is not Cas, and therefore lost to them in the sense of using Cas as a measure to predict his next actions; literally lost to them that it’s not Cas in there, but also lost in the sense they can’t find him.

-

Sam deflects to look at their poor melted gun.

-

Alicia interrupts them with a buzzing phone - they locate one that is presumably Mary’s and seems to confirm the Bunker just endlessly charges their phones for them theory, because even with phones bought specifically for great snoozing battery life, when was the last time they saw Mary and how long has that phone been there

I mean this must imply they see her more often than we have seen them interact, and that months have been going by, but they have been out of contact a looong time per the show. This works like the mixtape moment to show that they have more interaction than we know about, but in a harmless, non-romantic way where it just shows she’s been in and around the Bunker lately. She won’t know it’s bugged because that’s info the BMoL’d keep from her, but they made a sort of truce after 12x14 and I don’t think have interacted since. She hasn’t been shown in the Bunker since she left after 12x13/14’s argument.

-

Witch twins!

(“Like Max and Alicia?” - Dean knows everyone. I mean yeah he met them but Sam’s weird about knowing people or remembering the people they encountered - more of the tiny bit of characterisation where Dean remembers all the hunters and so on that pass through their lives with very little prompting, or can guess something like Claire hanging around working the same case when Sam doesn’t. At this point, basically ready to call it a parallel to Cas knowing every angel by their name and face instantly.)

Alicia is weird about Sam answering in a very awkward way that sounds like me on the phone, like, these are the exact noises and tones I make when trying to deal with someone calling/answering I did not expect :P I love her.

Alicia thought that Mary might help - and omg yes. A “we” - “nnuhuh” - “okay I” correction. Yeah, we had one where Dean corrected Sam for saying “we” were happy to have Cas back, but then he “we”’d Cas all the way through the rest of the episode to avoid love confessions, so maybe that got a bit lost or maybe we need a reminder of his hypocrisy about hiding behind that. Max will not let Alicia talk for him. Is Max a good Sam mirror for giving us the “oi don’t involve me in this” we needed shouted from off-screen last episode?

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Max thinks Tasha is fine, Alicia is freaking out. Aside from involving someone else in all this, the 1x01 parallels would make her Dean and Max Sam as Sam was initially sceptical and Dean was already freaking out before we even met him as an adult, and had come to get Sam specifically for that.

Aaaand then Max says she’s being dramatic, and mom’s fine, because he’s the Sam-est Sam mirror to ever Sam right now, literally using Sam’s lines about mom being fine and telling Dean he’s dramatic, while Alicia freaks out about their mom.

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Dean’s like what the hell what about Cas immediately, which now tops some of those season 11 MotW openings where Sam had to wheedle him out of the house and away from researching how to save Cas, to be the no 1 “Dean worried about Cas he’s not in this episode but we’re gonna have to leave the house for plot formula reasons so this is how we justify it” moment.

I would like to take a moment to remember that some people think that Dean doesn’t care about Cas or that the show isn’t about Dean liking Cas when we’ve now had two seasons on the trot where this is the formula for the last half of the season

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Anyway they got Jody to help, which means she knows about the mytharc. Woah. Possibly the first time they’ve ever told her off screen and before she got embroiled in it herself or caught them dealing with the fallout of it :P They really try to protect her from the big stuff, but… Maybe Dean should take her up on the repeated offer to talk if he needs it. Happens so often in episodes by so many different writers that’s clearly a Thing that the writers in general are working on including.

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Today on direct callbacks to previous things they have said on the show: Sam demonstrates that deep down he’s still traumatised by 1x01 to the point of remembering the exact phrasing Dean used to get him out of the house.

Interesting use of it because it’s Sam wheedling Dean to get out of the house using someone else’s scenario that happens to be the same one that Dean used to get Sam to go with him. I’m thinking of their duty to the next generation of hunters - that legacy they talked about in 12x18, and the sense of what happens next. Them being more community-minded, answering someone else’s call to adventure to help them out on the way, with aaaall their experience of what happens when your parent has been on a hunting trip and hasn’t come home… And hopefully to help and at the very least reassure and comfort them with something they never had, being so isolated and chasing after John with no experience, no connection to the hunting community, nothing they thought they could rely on. I mean, Bobby was a “shit we’re gonna die” last resort because they remembered how John parted with him, and clearly up to that point were worried that they’d get the same reaction.

They want to be Bobby before everything goes to hell for someone else.

Or, well.

Sam does.

In that Sam gets a dog, is the next Bobby, Dean n Cas get married and do their own thing endgame scenario.

(Aaaah)

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Jesus we get a shot of Dean where for a moment he holds his head the same angle as in 1x01 (thanks Speight) and he looks the frikkin same as he did in season 1.

I hate his face.

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I hate that he spells it Cass.

his recent calls from oldest to newest are Sam Sam Sam Cass Mom Sam, all listed as “yesterday” which for them was the events of 12x19, so I guess the Cas call is where he figured Cas ditched his phone, the Sam ones are filler because Dean and Sam might talk for 17 minutes arguing about what groceries to bring home, but the mom one is listed in his recent calls from “yesterday” that he already attempted to phone her once, apparently immediately after calling Cas and getting no answer. I will take that as him wanting to reach out to his mom because he was upset about Cas >.>

Mittens and I just talked over that it’s spring so the fact it was dark in 12x19 doesn’t mean it was midnight, so they have time to fit in a lot of panicking if they woke up not long after Cas booped them, especially if they split up to look for them for a bit, hence Dean having called Sam 4 times before midnight.

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Anvil heavy parallel about moms in peril and not answering their phones starting with the shapeshifter who they have captured with bolts in it, and in Mary’s form, obviously a fake out that Ketch has randomly skipped ahead in the plot and captured Mary and is torturing her. Mary herself is fine, just ignoring her phone while Ketch works over the shapeshifter. We’re just left with the unsettling possibility that Mary might stop not answering her phone because she’s busy and not answer it because she’s in peril.

I’m reminded of 6x10 and Crowley interrogating himself but this is interesting because it’s casually using 2 of the same person in the room stuff while Mary isn’t even the one confronting herself - because she’s avoiding introspection to work with Ketch. Meanwhile Ketch is working “her” over and also talking directly to the shapeshifter Mary to ask her to turn her phone off, in the sort of anger where it sounds like he’s asking her.

He has no lines between Mary as she is and a Mary-looking monster he’s allowed to hurt. The only reason he’s NOT hurting our Mary is because she’s still useful to him.

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Awww Dean wants her to help. He doesn’t mention Asa, just that they’re “the witch twins!” because he thinks they’re as adorable as I do. Listen to him being a cutie.

And then his voice breaks and he asks her to call him back just to talk because he’s upset, and we have him leaning on the table in the library, the room associated with home, and family, and the job but in a good way, with the view of the war room behind him, the dark part of the job, where it’s a burden, a war they’re drafted into… lurking over him like a thought bubble. Whether they face in or out of that room is important >.>

It also shows Dean being very, very alone, because of course the Mary and Cas parallels are still very much a thing, and as they were set up from 12x03 onward, because they’re gone, and this time it’s that they’re both deliberately not answering for one reason or another, while in the earlier part of the season they were taking personal time, and in the middle of the season they were in it together while Sam and Dean were gone… Then they both get distracted taking on a mission with the BMoL and the nephilim, which were okay-ish but uncomfortable for a while, and now we have it turn on them, I assume 12x19 for Cas and this episode for Mary because yeeesh the use of the shapeshifter.

I suppose it amuses you to take Mary’s form.

Ketch says it will do nothing to inspire hesitation. Mary has to watch him say that and then drive a spike into the shifter.

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Ooh that was clever use of pronouns - Mary calls the shifter “he” I assume because of how they met it, which draws attention to pronouns… and then Ketch is like “It!” very emphatically.

Also Mary calling it “he” distances from the shape it’s currently in. It’s not *her* because that’s both a pronoun and literally, not her. She sees a difference - Ketch really doesn’t, or doesn’t care not to.

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He also sounds like he “cares” about people, in a sort of repeating my training monsters are bad because they kill people, I’m gonna dexter my way through it and kill monsters and who the BMoL tell me to instead of innocent people… Use them as a moral guide for what’s okay to kill, and gives him an abstract idea that there are people who should not be killed. He doesn’t CARE and probably WOULD kill them because he doesn’t actually have this concept of innocent humanity who should be protected, but it’s a rationale from the job to make killing as acceptable as possible for him. Anyway he spouts the justification that the shifter killed people.

It laughs at him looking SUPER evil and creepy. Mary’s face has been used a LOT for evil or to say and do horrible things across the years. The last time we saw her before season 12 was as Eve. The time before that, 5x16 when Zach used her image to torture Dean. (I mean I like Eve and think she was good in her own way and only acting as a neutral force that had a separate morality but was a good mom to her monsters… but for the sake of argument, WAS a big bad who wanted to turn all humans into monsters and killed a bunch of people to get there - a literal reverse this year of Mary trying to get RID of all monsters…)

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“Your eye twitches when you lie” “My eye twitches all the time” - I mean we’re gonna have to go back and watch how many times Ketch winks this season. Anyway the shifter takes his form, and they stare each other down, and like I said about MARY not doing any self-reflecting but only seeing what Ketch might do to her in that? Remember the shifters download memories after they contact people, and Ketch snapped and punched it instead of sticking spikes in it at a careful remove. He’s just given the shifter a chance to copy him, and now it can get inside his head too.

Both Ketch and Mary have a visible reaction to this change. Mary is kind of fascinated what happens here - will the shifter betray anything else about Ketch to her?

AAAH it’s not using the aaaaccccccccentttttttttttttttt IS THIS DHJ’S ACTUAL VOICE? I HAVE BEEN WONDERING ALL YEAR

“Well I guess I know aaall about you.”

Ketch just smirks and takes another spike.

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Nyoooom

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mountains and laaaakes

Max sits on the bench like Sam does

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“Anything else?”  
“I got the bartender’s phone number” *grin*

*Sam parallel comes screeching to a halt* *turns into Dean parallel suddenly when it’s about picking dudes up*

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Also… gender neutral bartender pronoun. As far as on screen conversations go, Dean does not know Max is gay which is gonna amuse me as long as this lasts :P

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Uh but also they tracked their mom by asking around at the vegan restaurant because of course she’s a vegan. She drives a smart car. This is like the dead opposite of finding John’s grimy motel room full of abandoned burger wrappers

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Okay no I unpaused and Max complimented the car specifically to Dean and Dean offered him a tour. Pls.

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They disappear off and Sam stays behind to have the Serious Conversation with Alicia - like, Max and Dean having a chill conversation in the background about cars is the reason to separate them off for the real stuff

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Okay first we get some more grenade baiting.

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Anyway Max seems to know their mom better - which is a Dean thing, that he THOUGHT he knew her better, even if he’s still arguing from the ‘she’s fine’ Sam position - because they have more in common, both being natural witches.

And Alicia has no magic, even though they’re the “witch twins” which, ouch. “Magic is definitely their thing” but she’s always getting lumped in as being a witch or associated with them. If we take that as a family business season 1 parallel, Sam was the outsider there to Dean and John at least to start with, because Dean had been hunting those missing years, on his own or with John, and was immediately picking up the burden of “saving people hunting things” and cajoling Sam onto the track - which took until John’s death and 2x02 to get a real change on but then of course it was in reaction to grief, though Sam had chosen family in 1x22, it all gets messed up by John’s death… Less a victory and more something that alarms Dean about Sam’s coping methods :P Anyway Dean in season 1 was firmly family business coded, and Sam was dragged along with it while he had personal reasons to be on the revenge mission, but initially little interest in the family business. I mean the whole point that Dean had to give him the saving people hunting things speech in the first place was this.

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fffffffffffff Sam just confirmed this analysis for me so take that as a deeper explanation on why he said exactly this and thinks John and Dean had a greater bond over hunting. I don’t think Dean and John necessarily had more of a “bond” than him and Sam because that “spent it on ammo” conversation, but Dean was definitely closer to the JOB than Sam.

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LOL “what about with Mary”

Awwwkward

Sam mumbles something which explains metaphorically Mary’s absence all their lives, and how she acts now, and does NOT give a personal relationship kind of answer in the same way as talking about their bonds and relationships for all the other dynamics.

“Not a great hugger” though - the only thing Sam and Mary HAVE is that hug in 12x02. Puts it in stark relief how that’s ALL they shared.

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Sam uses the power of awkwardness to further the case. Incredible. he’s finally harnessed it. The weirdo guy who came out the basement and possibly killed Tasha but is blatantly connected since he was just in there so must know something or other, just kinda stares at them. Sam gives him a super awkward wave, the sort that can be the only answer to awkward staring, and the man does not break and seem at all empathetic to the by now CRUSHING awkwardness of this scene, merely turns and walks off. Sam being a goober proved that there was something shady about this guy. I’m just… yeah. Brilliant application of characterisation. No one exploits Sam’s awkwardness and it’s RIGHT THERE for the taking :D

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Tasha pulls a knife, storms into the hotel and is met by the adorable desk guy, holding flowers, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth etc

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oooh dear, Tasha has her shirt half-tucked in, which is how Mary’s been wearing just about everything this year. We’ve seen it so many times on her, that I can’t help but read it as another reference.

Also hi Tasha but wtf you’re supposed to be dead?

Also are you the same actress who was making out with Asa? I forgot to check earlier. *goes to re-watch his Up montage*

Nah, I don’t think it’s the same actress, although I still guess she could be the younger self of Tasha, since it was however long ago the twins are old, we’d have to assume.

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Mittens keeps screeching to me about mirrors flipping, so I guess this is a formal note that all the stuff I was talking about earlier about not marrying speculation and how Dabb era is a totally wild ride where it yanks expectations out from under your feet is a thing being very very deliberately applied here by the show. They built up a Max > Sam, Alicia > Dean, Tasha > John backstory, but once Max said he hit on the bartender, we suddenly get Max > Dean, Alicia > Sam, Tasha > Mary thing going on.

As I was talking about 2x02, Sam and Dean flipped roles there. And in season 10 onwards we had a Sam is the new Dean theme going on where THEY flipped a ton of symbolic roles. It still happens from time to time depending on what themes you’re looking at - swapping back to try out a theme on the other brother.

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Max is snarky about Tasha being in peril, after i over-used that word >.>

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Wine! Dean hasn’t got to have wine since they were hanging out being fancy with Jody in 11x12

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oh my GOD Alicia “we"s the anxiety over Tasha and gets corrected by Max AGAIN for using "we” intead of “i”

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The room has a wood pattern all over the wall which reminds me of 3x10 but also the fairy episode

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Tahsa says her phone wasn’t charging which just amuses me that Mary left one of her phones and it was fully charged to get the call from Alicia

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Okay that was gross. Is Tasha an actual zombie now? I guess being dead makes you fragile or something because there’s no way a normal hand dislocates like that opening wine. I guess you’re more brittle or something???

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She is dead, right?

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Is this zombie wine

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Dean is holding his wine glass like an animal. Dude.

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Sam goes to get their vegan food and Dean helps himself to a free top up of the zombie wine. I detect a faint note of 5x15 and Karen Singer’s zombie pie - Dean being given treats by a dead mother figure and helping himself happily… Of course back then they knew something was wrong as soon as they got into town.

They should have heard the snapping of fingers because honestly I can make my joints pop loud enough to hear across the room, surely relocating your entire finger like that is even louder, as per the revolting sound effects?

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I wonder why she’s keeping it from them - I feel like this maaay be a Cas parallel to the mind control or whatever he’s under now, that it’s showing her behaving somewhat to totally normally, except for the parts where she’s shifty about whats’s happened to her. Is it a trap? Aside from lack of communication she did nothing to draw them there, they just stumbled onto her. She knows something’s up with her but why is she hiding it? Is she totally lost and this is what’s left of her, or is she changed, concerned but not sharing out of protecting them?

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Ew killing things turns Ketch on - confirmed. >.> I mean not that that’s a hard reach to make but it’s very very clear now when he just asks her outright for sex because he’s pumping with adrenaline now >.>

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Mary having Ketchy second thoughts. Talking back to him way too easily as she tries to call him out for too much torture fun.

“That shifter was never going to betray his family” oo-er themes of family betrayal then.

“Sometimes pain works” You’re really scary, you know.

Mary reveals she NEVER saw that side of Ketch before - the side that enjoys torturing. She’s been missing the signs all along then, but what can you do about it :P She wanted to believe this was going to be a good thing.

He immediately says she’s not going to become the Jiminy Cricket of the BMoL - of course, Dean already has volunteered that work to souless!Sam in season 6, and there are more than enough parallels to the scary work they do to the Campbells or how Souless!Sam acted towards hunting, with again that very unnerving idea of why they do the job - saving people as a sort of abstract idea or goal, while Dean will cry for random humanity that he’s never met but he knows will suffer/have suffered.

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Anyway Ketch fobs her off on Mick, who won’t answer… He’s just using her for as long as he can get work out of her until he has to kill her, and obviously seeing the signs this isn’t going to last much longer if she’s starting to question “ends justify the means”… I assume he tells her to call Dean as a way to let her say goodbye if he was compassionate - or to put one more phone call between them and the length of time it takes for Dean to realise she hasn’t answered for weeks and run riot on the BMoL to find out what happened to her. If she checks in, he just thinks she doesn’t love him and goes weeks without talking to him, and buys Ketch literal weeks before her not answering becomes a problem for Dean aside from the obvious trauma :P And Mick is also giving the illusion there’s a higher up authority who cares/the human face of the faceless terrifying organisation, which, of course, he’s killed off. It’s JUST him there and the random heavies they’ve hired.

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Dean checking his messages - nothing from Cas or Mary

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He must be at that part of drinking wine where you get moody

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Tasha also says he must be drunk and Dean’s like pfft on wine so I think he’s going to get unexpectedly sloshed because wine can really hit you if you’re not expecting it even if you drink a lot reguarly :P

Max is trying to talk Alicia into letting him take the jeep to go hook up with the bartender, I guess, and Alicia is having none of it.

Dean gets into a deep conversation about parenting with Tasha, which can do nothing to make him feel good because his hunter mom has been not answering his calls, while he sees love and support here, stuff like “always call on day 4 of a hunt” for example.

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Dean gets to field the question about where Mary was when they were being raised - her death portrayed by both Sam and Dean now as complicated, a situation of her being absent which sort of implies intent. Selling it this way for lack of awkwardness is exactly the problem I have with writing her in an unnamed terrible AU of mine, because now to match her current characterisation but where you can’t kill her off for 30 years, she has to turn out to be a pretty flaky parent and mirror the season 12 characterisation all the way down the line. Like, what, she just got depressed and disappeared on them or something?? How do you handle her coming back into their lives, or the contact she would or wouldn’t have had with them? Her death becomes negligence when you have to pretend she’s been in their lives the entire time instead of dead, because both Sam and Dean are caught out speaking of their lives as if Mary was never there, because she WASN’T.

I don’t know if the blame will actually fall on her or not but I think there’s a hell of a lot of resentment they were never allowed to feel that their lives were this way and Mary made a deal and kicked it all off for them… sure greater circumstances, blah blah apocalypse was fated and the demons and angels both would do anything to ensure that… But on a human level, on a family level, it begins with Mary’s deal. Her absence was still an accidental death but it happened. And now she’s back, being a flaky, complicated parent with huge absences they have to explain when writing an AU of their lives where she didn’t die to avoid explaining it… It sounds bad >.>

(I am of course fully on Mary’s team and loving it, but for Sam and Dean’s positive development, addressing this blame to Mary and bringing her to a level where they can DARE express it is a great goal to aim for here >.>)

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“Parents always seem smart and strong and perfect. It’s only when you grow up that you realise they’re just people.”

That is what Dean has needed to hear since well, ever

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Mary finally listens to Dean’s message, and looks deeply concerned. But being in Ketch’s vicinity ruins her chance to deal with it. Dean coincidentally calls her right then, and she has to hang up because drama

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Mick kindly lets Mary know he’s going to be gone a few more weeks. Does that mean Ketch is buying a few more weeks where Mary isn’t suspicious? He’s dragging out killing her if he was supposed to do it already. You can say bugging the bunker was tactical because Sam and Dean might be dangerous enemies and at the very least you need to learn their patterns if you’re going to attack.

But Mary’s like, right here.

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I sort of feel like the vegan food thing is dangerously close to zombie!Tasha snapping and eating someone. Just… they are really making a deal out it :P

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gosh creepy cellar guy is creepy no way

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Dean no don’t leave your phone unattended while going to go investigate

I mean, Mary potentially calling you aside, that’s leaving yourself stupidly vulnerable to not having a phone on you if crap goes down

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Oh, there’s the creepy twine

And the twigs

brrrr

knew she was evil

it was the wool that tipped me off

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I have a question. That has bothered me almost the entire show. They always use “dean’s other OTHER cell” answerphone but is that just his main phone these days and the main no. is like one of his generic work phones they keep in the glove compartment (the “batphone”) and… what. I mean I know they use the recording because it is useful to show someone’s tried calling all 3 of his phones, but it implies Dean constantly has up to 3 phones on him and he leaves them all behind. So are all the messages on the other OTHER phone all going to the one he leaves in the car, in the Bunker, the emergency one he sews into the lining of his coat, what?

I mean it always seems to imply they’re missing the call on the phone Dean keeps on him at all times, e.g. his main phone, the one we’d casually think of us “our phone” if it was ours, and all the others are emergency work related ones somehow or other. If the one he plays words with friends on is his other OTHER cell, why on earth is it the 3rd resort number phone as per his answerphone message? Or is it just a friend privilege to know that other OTHER cell is the one he’s most likely to answer first?

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Oh dear the “I love you” message is always the one that is really portentous that Mary’s gonna be in trouuuble. That’s what Dean only gets to hear at the end of the episode and by then we know something dreadful has happened to her.

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“Ugh, smells like death” - didn’t need to know that. Also how does it not seep out further than this.

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Little bit worried that Max has excused himself and the bartender he’s going to go hook up with is at the vegan restaurant (which has a bar apparently). I mean I’m just going off the endlessly relevant 9x05 and what Dean said about the source of all evil being at a vegan restaurant.

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Also it’s split him and Alicia up and at the moment Alicia’s alone with Tasha, who is, well… signs don’t point to very well :P

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Oh cripes we’re only halfway through the episode so I may be speculating as if it’s a short MotW but we also have to splice it with the Mary stuff…

ew dead people and oh noooo the poor perky hotel clerk

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Tasha noooo

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She looks really dead.

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Oh no, Max.

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She was not fine after all :<

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Meanwhile Mary

isn’t this the exact same room you were knocked out in last time you couldn’t trust someone working with the BMoL

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Wait that coffin sized box was MICK okay that’s horrible

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Also weirdly paralleling what Max just found with his mom. It’s dead body discovery time. At least that sort of defuses the Mary anxiety for a moment - Max found Tasha and Mary finds Mick.

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Need to know the rest of the episode to comment on what this means for Mary and Cas… Doesn’t look good that this is a copy but then if it’s not Tasha but transformed, but something entirely other using her heart… well, Cas’s heart has been hijacked to be used in defence of the nephilim it seems… Mary is in danger of losing her heart? Which is Sam and Dean?? Who knows

stop speculating mid-episode Lizzy

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Oh dear, they have the demon!Dean Gas n Sip murder footage as Dean’s picture on the wall. Also Garth (eep only one not to be in the season… so far…) Eileen, Claire, Dean, Mary and Sam… Eileen and Claire, the Winchesters basically lead them to, and Garth they only had to namedrop before they got some intel enough to give him a screen.

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Mary Winchester - Age: 63 - SEE FILE NOTES

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FILE: “WTF”

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they have garth’s naked CCTV footage from 9x12!

Claire confirmed to be 20, also I recognise that pic of her and I’m not sure where from but I have a weird feeling 10x20 and they’re just reusing it as some CCTV footage

Eileen they have somehow got footage of her on the case in 11x11. Hrm. I suppose CCTV again and they’ve gone deep but they did encounter her much more recently than that and could have found out her more recent movements a bit more easily :P

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Oh dear, Ketch knew she was in there. He probably stood patiently out there knowing she’d have to open the door sooner or later and what better way to get the element of surprise :P

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Well that hastens their confrontation

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“A werewolf shot him in the head”  
“it’s not impossible”

I mean, Sam got shot by a werewolf just this time-ish last year

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*loud yelling about the fight* AAAH MARY

She’s getting knocked around so much I can TELL she’s a Winchester. Wall slams for Dean and head trauma for Sam. It’s genetic. And she is a vicious fighter herself as we’ve known since 4x03, but I mean, she once fist fought an angel :P

She breaks his arm like Dagon broke Dean’s which is a weird parallel until you consider Dagon is the ultimate dark Mary mirror in a season concerned with mothers - she, Mary and Kelly make a weird collection except that motherhood links them. And Ketch of course is the dark Dean mirror. So good Dean gets arm broke by bad Mary, and good Mary breaks bad Dean’s arm.

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Ketch is going full villain monologue

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He offers her protection if she just plays her part - and plays nice. Look, mate, I just watched 9x18 in the last couple of hours and am still hyped up about Metatron being the best thing that ever happened on the show, so you’re kind of failing there :P But the “play your part” thing is something they’re told all the time, especially in season 5 because TFW namedrop and 5x08 and all. Now Mary has a threat to HER free will - to become, well, the thing I wrote about in A World Without Monsters after 12x14 - Ketch’s passive wife who does what he says and goes where he wants, who dresses her up in expensive clothes and keeps her at his side like a trophy >.>

God I’m just so amused at the directors these last 2 episodes. Naomi directs Cas having his agency taken away, and Gabriel directing Mary being told to play her part.

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Mary doesn’t play nice :D

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I can’t believe he didn’t think the brass knuckles would work on him. Like, they’re SO caught up in all their fancy technology and all their ways of doing things, that they forget the practical resourceful side >.>

The not-quite line about not being an angel was hilarious though.

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I mean the BMoL HAVE been paralleled to Heaven all season but… Well, brass knuckles are brass knuckles

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Ketch “wins” the fight with cheating after Mary utterly destroys and emasculates him

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I really love Mary

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ALSO MAX IS GREAT. Look at him chucking a guy through a window!

Everyone has glowing eyes - the stick people have white eyes. It’s very similar to the original flavour nephilim eyes from 8x22, which were just a bit more golden. And angels have nearly white eyes but more blue when they glow. Pure white is associated with Alastair and Lilith, but theirs were kind of sick demonic eyes, while these are very obviously an inner glow of magic taking over them. The fact it’s a taking over effect makes me even more certain the twig mom is a parallel to Cas.

Oh! Soul eater had white eyes for its possessed people (aka Dean) in 11x16. Nice.

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Also Max and Dean have paired off while Alicia and Sam are dealing with twig mom.

I know this has all been pretty instinctive running around but I like that the story chose to put Dean and Max in one place and Sam and Alicia in another.

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At this point the line between “stressed about Cas” and “my boyfriend has been abducted by Lucifer’s unborn child” put Deaan in sketchy grounds for a hook up and also Max is an acquaintance, someone in the life, which makes it more real, so sadly I can not root for them to hook up. But I do approve them being parallels and working together :P

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Also Max was gonna go on his date but got distracted onto the case again and found out the truth - as Dean often does because him going to the bar is almost always a motivator to actually finding out vital info or getting dragged into things.

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The stick people are terrifying. I’d love a longer episode about them.

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Set them on fire. usually works.

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(I’m hiding behind my fingers so no typing)

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Aaaah the witch wants someone to take her magic?? Max don’t do it! If you think it will save your mom it’s not worth going to hell foooor you’re already a good witch without it!!

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Oh god Dean can see this too but MAX

Oh god

*reaches for him through the screen*

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MAX SAID NO

Good, don’t get into the Winchester’s cycles. She’s gone, she’s just a memory now. >.>

-

(AAAAH not thinking about what other symbolism yeeeet)

-

OH NO SHE’S MAKING THE OFFER AGAIN

MAX YOU BETTER SAY NO AGAIN

-

ALICIA NO

-

Oh god Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax

-

THERE IS TOO MUCH SCREAMING TO BE DONE WHO DO I SCREAM FOR FIRST?

I’M NOT DONE SCREAMING ABOUT ANYTHING

-

Oh god Dean saved his mirror but Sam’s got a stabbed, dying Alicia to deal with

And Dean saving Max from going down a bad bad bad bad mark of cain looking path means Max may lose his entire family (although Tasha was already lost, let’s be real, taking a doll home of her is as unrealistic and painful as a happy ending as Linda taking home Kevin’s ghost)

-

Welp, they’re all dead except poor old Max, who thought everything was fine and he was gonna go out and get laid, and instead his entire family died >.>

And he got to watch his mom die in excruciating detail

-

He wishes he’d just listened to his sister when she was trying to tell him she was worried. Hm.

Sam has said both Mary and Cas are fiiine this year, and Cas is now, well, a stick person, and Mary has has the BMoL thing bite her in the ass, so that’s all going great. >.>

-

nyooom (over the same stretch of road as they were driving in the opposite direction to get to California… Uh.)

-

(I giffed it in the last couple of weeks while layering snarky captions over the background, I’m not that weird :P)

-

Oh no “You saved him” “he didn’t look saved”

But letting him do a demon deal to keep his family alive? Nope. Sometimes you have to let it go

-

“Happy family - the kind we should have had”

well that’s not massively depressing after they both had to explain their family history with no Mary in it to someone else

-

Whoopsie he went and picked up the ring

right as Sam was saying they couldn’t let him do a deal for his soul

“we do terrible things all the time to save each other - that’s what you do for family”

it’s kind of horrifying this is the lesson about family they’ve learned, when it’s the whole new better ways thing that’s basically trying to find ways out of having to do this for each other, even while Mary and Cas are busy doing terrible things for their family >.>

-

Maybe the horror of thinking another set of siblings would be as dumb as them about saving each other is enough of an objective viewpoint to make them think about it.

Meanwhile, Max. Going and doing an actual demonstration of what not to do in the case of grief, when you know there’s a magic spell out there that will make it all better.

-

She’s his twig sister now

You can get all philosophical about it but in this world it depends on where the soul is or isn’t. He has her heart and her memories… Did any of the other missing people act soulless? None of them really did - they were just under the witch’s thrall when she needed them to be. I think she’s not functionally human, but she is functionally living… The real bad part is not what she has transformed into, but that Max now has her under his thrall. Even if he NEVER uses that power, he HAS the capability to, and he’s on a moral slide now, having made the choice to resurrect his sister using the dark witchy powers.

-

Kind of horrifying once you think about it, that it probably WAS for all intents and purposes, Tasha that they were talking to until the witch made her turn on them.

-

But yeah I think Dean read when Max was telling them to leave that he might do it -  because Dean knew he would do it, or would have done it, in the same circumstance. He’s worried and tends to know. He knows how hurt Max is, and like, “I’m not so sure” about Max being alright.

-

Max taking the journal also reminds me of Sam in 3x15 - if Dean hadn’t stopped him, he’d have taken the creepy doc’s journal and used its power to keep Dean alive at any cost - even having seen what a Frankenstien’s monster that turned the doc into

-

Finally, Dean listens to his messages, and aside from an eyeroll about mentioning Ketch, takes the first message okay

but then…

we have a problem

-

… uh, why won’t Sam wake up

-

Lol, Mary’s in the exact same chair that the shapeshifter was in what a surpriiiise

-

Oh the grey suits messed me up, I thought that was Ketch.

Toni comes out of the same corner that Mary was lurking in hiding behind her own shapeshifter while they were making you think that that was Mary in the chair.

-

I guess the Mary stuff was just escalating the tension and moving on the plot while mirroring here and there what was going on - she and Cas are main plot things with their two sides of the story, so they are what the other stuff mirrors… I think the twig control thing is obvious enough for the nephilim control - not an exact thing because Cas presumably isn’t dead, though the heart detail is interesting when Cas - “too much heart” etc, and the season 8 stuff where heart imagery was liberally splashed around and connected to him because of that line. But the partial control, the sense of self outside of anything relating to the control - the obliviousness to what HAS happened, like Alicia leaving her own dead body behind. I still feel like Cas might not necessarily think that he’s been controlled. And that he’s just himself, as Tasha did when they confronted her, and as Alicia does as she walks out the door, more concerned about the blood on her brother’s hands without realising it’s her own. (Symbolic.) 

And then they parallel Sam and Dean but back and forth - some parts Sam some parts Dean. Max’s final action, Dean says they’ve both done terrible things, and so Max stands for them both, mirroring things like 3x15 and Gadreel just for starters, never mind selling his soul to get his sister back, as Dean did and Sam tried to do. So it’s really the social stuff which is interesting (Max’s Dean-like behaviour, but Sam-like attitude to his family being fine, and Alicia’s reflection on family getting some needed vocalisation of how Sam feels about it all, and the thing about hugging and all…)

Kind of wish we had more of the twig people but we had to fit in all the Mary stuff and she was brilliant this episode. I’ve been waiting for someone to get in a few good hits on Ketch and that fight was brutal, and let Mary get bloody and fight dirty, which was great…

-

In conclusion: AAAAAAAAAAAAAH


	21. 12x21

not proof read 

expectations: I was in fandom for 10x21

Here is the lowest bar ever

-

*buckleming crawl under the bar*

-

I took a few hours and I’m sure I have nothing to say that hasn’t already been yelled about in great length by others, and I mostly just don’t care about anything they ever do ever again but let’s watch this for the plot because I’m a completionist, and this is going to affect 12x22 and 12x23 whether I want it to or not >.>

-

Oh the first scene is the promo one, which we already discussed a bit with all the parallels and such. The entire room and set and everything is yelling a ton of parallels and references, which I have already got a post on on my blog. Okay.

The stuff we didn’t get was Jody calling to tell Sam about Eileen.

*pictured: the blogger taking about as big a step back to think about this as Sam just did to prioritise freaking out over Mary over grieving for Eileen*

(this is a thing - Sam compartmentalises so much, and he has done all season, and Dean’s called him out on it, but it’s practical when hunters are dying, and mom’s in trouble, that you don’t ditch everything, you help out hunters who are in trouble (12x20 - what if Tasha had been got by the BMoL? It only doesn’t fit the pattern once they know what happened to her)… Sam says they know of another hunter who disappeared recently, anyhow. He links Mary to being the 3rd in trouble in the same way, and they KNOW the BMoL are with her and being sketchy. So. There’s that.)

Anyway, Jody serves 2 purposes - we have the horror of Claire being on the BMoL’s list so her call could have been about her, but we also know Jody has the APB out on Cas - Jody is becoming the nerve centre of the hunters because she’s the one with all the links when it comes to looking out for them, it seems. Raising girls who have a foot in the life, and keeping an eye out on the official record for other hunters who might be in trouble, as well as occasionally bringing them cases in the same way.

So that call could have been to tell them Cas had been found dead in a ditch like Dean feared, or Claire had been found dead in a ditch like WE fear, but instead it’s Eileen for Sam. It’s a sort of last horrible hurrah for using Cas and Eileen parallels - that both are connected to Jody like this. And Sam gets his horrible news while Dean had been waiting for it about Cas.

Sam shuts down and goes all business like, putting a potentially still living hunter (and also their mom but HONESTLY his compartmentalising is that good I wonder if mentioning this was only to get Dean emotionally hooked) ahead of dealing with what happened to Eileen.

At this point I feel like Terrible Coffee AU has become his djinn dream where he gets to just fuck off from all his responsibilities and scream in the woods for as long as he likes and actually feel everything he’s bottled up.

Also I am going to go write in a scene where Sam gets to go scream in the woods.

Also if you’ve been reading it, feel free to assume that between scenes where we’ve seen Sam, he has been off screaming in the woods. Or that it’s canon Sam’s djinn dream and starts some point immediately after this.

-

Hi yes I am now a bitter Sam girl, who knew.

-

So Mittens has helpfully explained the bad car continuity to me while I was blinking at Sam saying “2 hunter deaths” in the motel and “7” in the morgue. Possibly in all that driving time they reached out to others and found out more, but it really doesn’t sound like it, it just sounds like he’s repeating the exposition but with a higher number.

If they did spend like 50 hours in the car as she worked out, then I guess he would have had time to make a lot of calls.

-

*gif of the guy with the duct tape on the really big crack*

-

Things I like: Jared’s acting of Sam at the morgue, anyway.

Thinks I hate: he’s acting like that because Eileen is dead and it’s the worst thing to happen to Sam in ages and he can’t do anything about it, emotions-wise. And there are bigger problems than giving Eileen a hunters’ funeral and getting shitfaced for a week.

-

But where *did*they get 7 monster related deaths? Last scene it was all 2 isn’t a pattern and that seemed to be the point of the conversaion but now the point of the conversation is omg there’s been seven.

I’d ask who proof reads this but the answer is clearly either no one, or Bob Singer.

-

ANYWAY I went out to get snacks for a party tomorrow, nearly passed out on the way home, and also in a separate incident got stung by a bunch of nettles and it was still more fun than watching this :P

-

Mary is one of the ones going around killing hunters, though they kept her away from Eileen. She’s also being kept in a room one part Heaven parallel one part panic room parallel, being a sort of Sam in 4x21 and Cas in 8x17 mash up. She’s being brainwashed to go kill hunters and Toni comes to mock her for not being able to tell reality from fiction.

Buckleming like little digs at fans so I’m just gonna ignore that because I am ignoring them.

It is also thematic for the problems they’ve all been having of dealing with their expectations about this that and the other, or in copious denial and so on. It’s ALWAYS a relevant theme to this show but this year we don’t have a strong meta character or plot, it’s just in the characterisation.

We get a giant chunk of exposition that explains eeeverything. I was joking last night about the pie subtext being explained in the text and taking all the fun out of it… Obviously that was a lie and I’ve been really enjoying it (and also it’s not strictly out of the subtext, it was just being heavily utilised to tell the story instead of passing jokes, which made it even more fun than normal) but this really does take the joy out of meta-ing it except that I guess it’s the show telling us we were right to pick up on everything going on with Mary under the surface

So Toni takes a thin connection to start talking about all the Mary stuff, covering:

\- the “illusion” she has about her perfect life as it stood before she died  
\- well the concept of “perfect” in general which is something being challenged everywhere in the fact vs fiction stuff  
\- her willful denial it was normal despite that fact she was a hunter and still hunting so it wasn’t even like she was living totally normally  
\- the fact it wasn’t all based on her deal with Azazel, and that that was going to come for her at some point  
\- despite reading his journal a zillion times, just like last week Mary didn’t realise Ketch was a psychopath until massive lines were crossed, her willful denial that John went off the rails after her death  
\- that Sam and Dean didn’t TELL her this stuff  
\- literally just saying that John abused them  
\- that Sam and Dean are damaged because of what he did (and that he did it because it was her fault for the deal)

*And all pretty much in these words*

Like. Wow. This is obviously, like the same bulletpoints on the secret pinboard we don’t see in the writer’s room explaining everything about what’s going on with each character. Buckleming copied down the bulletpoints and then somehow thought that was just their notes for what Toni was going to say here :P I disapprove of exposition like this, but it has now brought all of this into the main text for Mary to deal with. Whether she agrees or not, she has to consider that what John did was abuse, and that Sam and Dean aren’t telling her everything about it. She can’t know for sure whether it was or not without their explanation but she’ll have to ask them for it and weigh their answers against the possibility of abuse… I don’t really know wtf they’re doing with all this but it’s forced too much character stuff on Mary at once to even deal with.

Toni goes on to say they’re restoring her to being Mary Campbell, stripping away all her life after things got messy with cupids and kids and all… She’s a born hunter, and to the BMoL they clearly see it in her blood (just like they see being a BMoL legacy in people’s blood). Anyway nature vs nurture stuff, and they’re going for raw nature as a killer (which Ketch firmly believes in about himself even if it’s possible he was just programmed to be this way from such a young age he never got a chance to think he was anything else)… It fits into the wider discussion of the season which also relates to the nephilim.

And by stripping away her life, it’s reducing her to a person without choice in what she is - “interesting choice. soon you won’t be making any”. It’s blatantly just cramming in themes of the season, but I guess this is what Buckleming episodes are often for: laying out on paper everything that has been hidden more carefully and subtly in the juicy parts of the season :P This is the bare bones, look at what this story is about, explanation.

-

Oh I guess the cut on Mary’s palm also parallels Sam’s in 7x02 which was his link to reality. She’s having her own reality issues but this reminds her that she’s being made to kill hunters, not monsters. And hunters who seem to know her, even to be friendly when they find her in their house (that whole scene seemed weirdly out of character for a dude I’d never met to be chill about that but whatever, he kept his still-bloody machete in the umbrella rack, maybe he was just sloppy)

-

Crowley comes to cross over some storylines at the very last moment of the season, after basically living in a bubble for the entire season since 12x08. He greets Dr Hess by name, and I had some speculation he was somewhat connected to the way the Winchesters got the tip off to kill Ramsay in 12x15… Earlier they were talking about hellhounds and it cut to Crowley to suggest he was involved, so this seems to be confirming a connection, especially for the messing around with Hellhounds between the BMoL and Crowley.

Yep, he loaned out the hellhound to Ketch, anyway. >.>

This conversation finally confirms what I suspected since 12x01 - the BMoL have a deal with Crowley that crossroad deals go uninterrupted as long as there’s no other demonic scheming in the country, just the humans idiotic enough to summon demons to sell their souls so it’s all their own fault. This shows corruption in the BMoL that they let this happen anyway - a line drawn that they can’t keep the demons out so they just pretend to go along with them like they had a choice in the matter. I suspect this deal with the BMoL is more symbolic than anything that they don’t harrass a percentage of demons that they come about in the course of things, because there is no way to police humans choosing to do this without like, a Minority Report level awareness of what they’re about to do. There’s no saving people who made the deals, though the Winchesters have intervened several times on behalf of people they felt didn’t deserve the punishment for the deal they made. The BMoL have opinions about that.

-

Crowley is also, predictably, challenged about his relationship to the Winchesters, which is a sort of as per usual thing - and he’s saved them an awful lot lately. He pretends not to be conflicted about it to Dr Hess, but the close up on his poker face is still a dramatic close up after challenging him about something or other. There’s been some speculation he might come to a decision about them but the Lucifer thing has been really throwing him off for me and any speculation I might speculate, by keeping him out of the way. His interactions with them in 12x12 and 12x15 showed his loyalties pretty clearly but that was a 2 times is a pattern that could be broken sort of thing and here he is finally being put to that test (his earlier interactions helping them find Lucifer, despite some mild self sacrifice gestures in 12x07, were really more about them solving a joint problem with some character stuff on the side… he begins being put to the test in the second half of the season)… It SEEMS pretty clear that his loyalties to being the big bad evil dude are fucked when it comes to the Winchesters despite himself, and he stands with Mary on the screen behind him, almost like a faction, or picked side, in this conversation, but that could just be because it was there on the wall to show they’re monitoring Mary so closely they have her blood pressure and everything on display and Crowley’s involvement is incidental.

Anyway I’m not sure which way he’d go, because everything suggests he’d pick protecting them but if it happens this episode, any amount of fuckery can intervene and if it happens later, I’m still not sure wtf the point of this Lucifer stuff is for him and what it means for where he’s going

it’s just… messy and weird and I don’t get the point of it yet because it feels more like they need this thing happening on the side because they gave the Marks contracts to be in this season and this is how they’ve been killing time, because neither character has that much left to offer the Winchesters because Sam’s arc with Lucifer ended in season 5 or 7, and Dean’s with Crowley in 10 or 11. Sam might not LIKE finding out Lucifer is still alive but they haven’t been connected since 11x10, and Dean might be pissed off at Crowley’s choice but aside from lol we’re exes jokes, nothing has happened between them all season, and even Cas working with Crowley wasn’t an arc so much as just showing the current state of politics between them.

-

I type all this ignoring another scene in Crowley’s lair, this time the Lucifer and his minion who is almost 10000% not going to survive because he’s acting as a shifty demon, a black actor, and talking to Lucifer, in a Buckleming episode, and we cut our losses with caring about this stuff. >.> I’m done since the cold open.

-

Sam phones up Crowley, which is rare enough, but he has a reason to be pissed off at him, and that’s because Sam already suspects that Crowley’s at least half-responsible.

He’s hated him since they met but if Crowley’s gonna die, Sam should do it, and this is a good motivation, at least. If Cas gets to vaporise Lucifer with nephilim power (I hope although like anything this season I’m not putting money on it :P) then Sam deserves a big kill of his own >.>

-

Anyway Crowley just called Cas “the Winchesters’ love slave”

The old refrain of using them plural to talk about Cas’s investment in them, the suggestion there is something sexual about his devotion to them missing the point entirely about why he cares for them, but also hinting at a truth underneath that Crowley knows full well the situation with Dean n Cas, and tbh Lucifer has possessed Cas so he probably knows Cas’s side too… A sort of awareness from both parties in the room that Cas is bananas for Dean but using it in a mocking way, and making it a general moral failing.

-

BMoL scene - no one has any nuanced characterisation that makes a great deal of sense in context, e.g. Toni trash talking Ketch in front of their superior, but we get some exposition that Hess thinks Ketch is cruel enough to take control of the BMoL one day and would do well as a test run as head of the American operation. Toni is also up for the job out of the blue because why not.

-

For some reason Dean goes to check their junk mail. They have a letter from Eileen! More expotion in the form of a letter. I hope she explains why she was still in America, but I’ve paused on Sam’s face when Dean says Eileen because I like hurting myself, and look at poor broken little Sammy in there :<

Of course, making it aaaall about Sam and Eileen and making it clear he was the one more emotionally connected to her.

He’s wearing a tan coat and blue shirt which makes me nervous casting him as a Cas mirror while dealing with this

-

Nice montage of Sam and Dean checking for bugs.

I am assuming they go to their trap, and Mary comes to kill this dude they made up, and Sam and Dean are like D:

-

oh wow gosh there’s a design flaw in Crowley’s control on Lucifer and it can be reversed so Lucifer can control Crowley who would have ever thought……..

(I mean maybe not this exact scenario but that things were potentially going to flip between them at some point and Lucifer would be in charge…)

I hate that they used the “reverse the polarity” line because it didn’t deserve that :P

I would wonder if there’s some meta application to this theme though - especially with Mary AND Cas being controlled, Lucifer being controlled has been the least interesting or well-used part of this, barely even serving as a mirror to this, but it’s not too late :P

-

Toni asking how Ketch knew the hellhound sat when she told it to and basically says better not to disagree with it even if you can’t see what it’s doing. Can’t work out what level this commentary works at.

They ARE about to be duped by the Winchesters via a transmission they can only hear without seeing what they’re doing. I wouldn’t *mind* Ketch being mauled by the hellhound although I do think one of the Winchesters should kill him

Sam owes him 2, Mary would get a hell of a lot of satisfaction but I still suspect Dean will do it anyway for meta purposes, dark mirrors, etc.

-

oooh ketch and mary scene. Please be as interesting as these two characters generally are regardless of writer

-

Oh no her face when she sees Ketch. I don’t think she can credit her memory of fighting him enough to know if it was real or not, and after spending so much time with him he’s a familiar face >.> And he’s soft on her, which is a whole other problem, but whatever happened with Ketch, I think Mary finds him weirdly comforting. But his idea of comfort is that he’s happy for the transformation she’s going through - mostly because she’ll be like him and they can have lots of sex while killing things together

Then Mary uses the “world without monsters” line as the lie falls away and she realises how badly this has turned on her and her dream.

It’s sort of the realisation I wanted her to have ~12x14 when I wrote my “a world without monsters” fic but oh well better late than never - she is going through the exact mental process I wrote which is always fun to watch on screen :P

And now Mary is feeling betrayed - “we worked together” and she mentions how she knew him. She uses that “closeness” even when he denies it to get near enough to grab his gun and *nearly* repeats how she nearly killed herself in 12x09 before Cas stabbed Billie and shocked her out of it. Ketch grabs the gun to protect her from herself, despite putting her through what makes her want to kill herself >.>

(This scene is brilliant by the way)

Mary now honourary member of Team Free Will - all she ever had when it came down to it was her free will… except she never even had that. What Toni mentioned about her deal was coersion from Heaven and Hell because she doesn’t know about the cupids, that the only reason she had her family was because her free will was taken away. But actually FEELING its loss immediately hurts her spirit so badly. (And she didn’t ask to be brought back and wouldn’t have chosen it)

Anyway that was an incredible performance, and Ketch was okay too, showing his weird half-concern where he kind of likes her and wants her to be what he thinks will help her - to take away the pain not by killing her but by removing her will to feel upset by this.

Mary is left sobbing on her knees and I just love that she was allowed to messy cry and hiccup her lines like… that was brilliant. I love Mary okay.

-

Although Sam and Dean seem to be going to their trap already so I now doubt Mary will come

there’s a flickering light by the warehouse which makes it look like ghosts are around.

Just them!

Dean gets kicked in the nuts, which is a reverse mirror of Mary kicking Ketch in the nuts - he the light mirror to the dark kicker, vice versa to Mary etc. Dean makes a quip about how they’ll have to start dating if she keeps doing that, which in a Buckleming way solidifies this. I’m just, not gonna poke that.

-

Oh but it’s a Crowley and Lucifer scene next.

God, watching the end of season 9 so recently really makes me hate this even more because remember when Crowley won everything?? After he lost Dean all the oomph went out of him - Dean shoving him in 10x02 and Crowley realising he’s fucked and hastily manipulating himself to safety - when he makes that bargain with Sam, he loses his threat and cred to them and on a narrative level. There’s nothing Crowley can do to the Winchesters now that’s as bad as demon!Dean, and he’s had no motivation to really get in their business and they don’t fear him. It’s not just a Buckleming problem although they’ve written most of Crowley this season it feels like (or these scenes are all individually 1000 years long) - they introduce Rowena immediately to give him another reason to be relevant and in scenes, but she quickly discovers he’s whipped by the Winchesters, and he spends season 11 messing around being invested in main plot stuff just because he happens to live in the same world as them, not because he’s out to get them or doing anything they urgently need to stop him doing. Even him harbouring Amara was only tangential to giving them a way to discover where she was - Crowley was nothing really to do with that particular confrontation. And then he got mired in the Lucifer stuff…

Now this season he has not only lost his edge but he’s genuinely only being portrayed as protecting the Winchesters or being an idiot. And now Lucifer has managed to take control of him, but not even through his own cleverness, just getting a random demon to help, and being told he could do it.

There’s really nothing of interest in these scenes because it’s all.. blah.

I mean I wouldn’t mind Crowley going soft so much because it’s been interesting in other episodes (12x12, 12x15, and the season 11 episodes where it was interesting or even 10x14 or 10x17) but that’s not really being explored as a character thing - now Buckleming are just exploiting that Crowley’s been off his game for seasons by doing this to him.

-

But I suppose the loss of agency thing is sort of relevant with Mary and Cas also in trouble - it’s like everyone but Sam and Dean is being controlled or is controlling >.>

-

I assume Crowley did just get some karma from Olivette and he’s now possessing that rat, especially since they made such a big deal out of cutting Crowley with an angel blade = loud demon burny sounds, and then like in 11x01 when Cas stabbed Crowley’s much shot and stabbed meatsuit, there was no sound effect.

Honestly at this point it sounds much more fun to have him stay as a rat, and also I guess his meatsuit is compromised

i would like someone else to play Crowley for a short period just like in 11x01 but without the orgy murder, and not because I dislike Mark S because he’s made Crowley’s long endurance since season 10 much more worth it than I guess it could have been with a less charismatic actor. But because it would be interesting and shake things up…

-

Wait I completely forgot to talk about the toni in the car scene… I mean that was all predictable and she was winding them up with the truth/half truths, and of course Mary is the sorest sore spot to push. The reveal she and Ketch had sex has a predictable reaction.

I finally figured out what’s bothered me all episode - the Brits don’t use ANY euphemisms for sex. IDK if Buckleming are particularly verbally creative anyway but they didn’t spend any time giggling at some sort of list online of ridiculous British euphemisms and then go out of their way to use it, so there’s now a drinking game for every time someone says “sex” in a pained British accent.

The real crime is they haven’t seen Austen Powers because using “shagged” is at least the most obvious one to use if you’re scared of being imaginative.

-

shoot out in the Bunker!

-

Dean gets some really improbable headshots but it’s cool because I love him

-

“how many more guys you have in here?”  
“our mom! where is she!?”

lemme guess she’s the other guy in here

*mary emerges with a gun*

oh lookie at that then

I suppose the 8x17 and Naomi parallels are about to do something. Mary’s already on the crypt scene graph a few times. I’m laughing because 10x03 has another “I know you’re in there” that I have totally blanked on since it aired, mostly because the failed ones really just kind of stack up in a little sad pile in the corner, but I did literally just watch it.

Interesting that Toni is ~more~ of the Naomi and Mary is basically here to free her… Ketch gets out sooner because Mary makes a shot just to scare Dean and Ketch gets his gun. Toni is the only one in peril now but she’s the one who seems to have been doing the hard work on Mary.

-

elizabethrobertajones  
oh cripes it didn’t work  
what the hell did Robbie DO  
he must have blackmail material on Singer  
and killing off all his faves is payback

mittensmorgul  
>.>  
wait, what didn’t work?

elizabethrobertajones  
the crypt scene failure with Mary

mittensmorgul  
oh, yeah. well, did we expect it to?

elizabethrobertajones  
I mean I know he played the game hard to establish only romantic love breaks it in his episodes

mittensmorgul  
The crypt scene was supposed to be founded on mutual love and understanding

elizabethrobertajones  
but… like… did that get engraved permanently in the show’s rulebook?

mittensmorgul  
the whole “YOU KNOW ME”  
but Mary really… doesn’t//

elizabethrobertajones  
I know :P But it doesn’t work on Sam and Dean???  
they have at least 3 failures between them

mittensmorgul  
sam broke through in blade runners…  
adn after he killed abaddon

elizabethrobertajones  
yeah but he wasn’t in danger  
and Dean was only sort of thinking about killing him

mittensmorgul  
but it took cas intervening in 10.03

elizabethrobertajones  
not overtly :P  
it wasn’t a staged crypt scene it was just Sam breaking through Dean’s murder fugue state caused by murdering someone else

mittensmorgul  
yeah…

elizabethrobertajones  
but 10x03 “i know you’re in there” has no effect, and Robbie’s parting one in 11x16 seemed mostly to be there to prove the rule

mittensmorgul  
nobody’s ever really broken dean free in true crypt scene fashion

elizabethrobertajones  
I mean you have a point about Mary not knowing them and it being a miscommunication thing  
but in the wider picture I’m actually stunned that it works every time :P

mittensmorgul  
yeah

elizabethrobertajones  
I’m guessing she gets reclaimed some way or other but it seems they need to find another way than just appealing to her like that  
which means even if they break through it’s going to be a subversion of sorts  
and has a past failure

mittensmorgul  
yeah

elizabethrobertajones  
while Dean nailed it first go on Cas :P  
although! they never told her to kill them  
and leaving them to die is different from making the shot

mittensmorgul  
yep  
if they’d ordered her to fire on them… that might’ve broken their hold on her  
It’s like Doctor Who and the Big Red Button

elizabethrobertajones  
but the important thing is that’s not what they showed here :P

-

Anyway that’s pretty ominous about the Bunker being their tomb - yet more stuff about it being less and less like their home - it’s always being threatened but every couple of years it seems really like it’s going to permanently happen. I spent this equivalent area of season 10 convinced they were going to torch the Bunker. With it being Dabb era, and the 5th year of the Bunker, bets are off.

-

Mary talking about it being easier to hurt the people she loves, like there aren’t only 2 people and she just left them to die and doesn’t expect to see them again

-

“How do you feel?” “Fine. I’m fine”

I think she might take the cake for one of the worst “i’m fines” ever on this show.

She’s now successfully been transformed into the Mary I wrote in A World Without Monsters and I never wanted to see that on screen despite kinda writing it assuming it would happen.

*shoves my fic far away from me because it’s done nothing but cause me pain* :P

-

oh thank god that’s over. I’m going to go to bed and spite-write Sam and Eileen’s relationship accelerating dramatically faster than I meant it to in Terrible Coffee AU.


	22. 12x22

*loud Dean!girl tears*

Cup of Tea No. 1:

Expectations - Berens Buckleming Clean Up Operation, which tbh when you rank writers by skill at this job WAS the top of the game over Dabb but then Perez showed up. But I still expect a competent job.

This appears to be the BMoL and Mary wrap up episode, although on this show appearances can be deceiving.

As a fervent Mary stan this season, I’m hoping they don’t kill her but if they do kill her she dies next episode for heroic reasons, not this episode for rubbish hubris reasons, although I am open to being won over to a tearful passing if they actually get to friggin communicate everything with her, and in that respect I feel we’ve been waiting since 12x03 for Berens to get back to the point he was making there…

I EXPECT Ketch to die bloody, but ever since last episode I’ve been pre-emptively disappointed that he’s going to be mauled by his own hellhound. Slightly less disappointed if Dean opens the cage and says “Sic ‘im, boy,” to the dog, because this IS an episode by Bobo “Drowley” Berens.

Aside from that, I’ve pretty much got nothing because I haven’t been speculating ahead on much or really daring to entertain any ideas, except for firmly staking my entire farm on the mystery dude from the 2 in 1 trailer being “Garth with padding” so I expect I will be handing over my farm soon. Although I assume that’s in 12x23 and therefore not yet and maybe not for hours.

[note from past me ‘hours’ yeah okay this episode literally ended up making me bedridden and too weak to move by the halfway point so I took like 24 hours from start to finish :P]

-

Oh yeah, Dean’s got a pending 7 years ago “welcome to next time” for Walt or Roy from Dark Side of the Moon. One or the other is supposed to be in this episode. The reminder of 5x16 nudges all its themes onto the table, and it’s nice that it’s a Dabb episode, the one that wrecked Dean n Cas’s faith, ruined Heaven for Sam n Dean, and had Zach attempt to ruin Mary for Dean with that chilling speech that after 12x03 we were saying really cut too close to home on what Dean might have thought after Mary walked out.

-

Quick Jody recap. Not entirely sure if the “Jody is good people” line comes from 10x20 about Claire, or 7x22 about not!Jenna, the Alpha’s blood slave, but it certainly wasn’t about Alex, although it’s laid over a clip of them together, and the only reminder about Jody is that she adopts wayward daughters.

-

Blah blah  murder!Mary, capturing Toni recap, Mary is brainwashed, bunker is gonna kill you… Noticing Ketch saying the air will “reverse” which means what, exactly, but anyway goes with the theme of reversing things. He also has an extremely punchable face, and since DHJ grew his beard back, all these con photos from the other day have been literally unrecognisable and I keep wondering who the normal looking bloke is hanging out on stage with them, because I’m so used to him looking like this:

-

(brief break because Berens episodes always make me really sick for some reason)

-

Anyway.

NOW.

-

Dead guy (thing?) on a truck.

Dead guy. Mary used some reaaaally horrible cat claw looking knuckle dusters or something to kill him. BMoL including savergy as part of the deal; Mary is the hellhound who tears up these guys. Not just being effective at killing - it has to be horrible too. And Mary’s been getting used to killing monsters horribly - why should it matter when it’s people?

-

the obvious problem next season is the hunters have been decimated so monsters are going to be a much bigger problem and sam and dean can’t rely on all these random nobody hunters to stop the next generation of tragic backstories.

This one was called Lester, and I watched 10x02 waaay to recently and that’s the guy who got screwed over by Sam’s demon deal shenanigans and Dean killed.

-

Oh no I think he worked in Auto Repair - Bobby would have been a target if only they still had a Bobby

-

Bobby would not have stood for this. Mary would have been in the panic room in a flash through some trickery and smart paranoia :P

-

Aaaaah Jody’s on the hit list. Who did Jody ever hurt???

I can tell you why that’s stupid even for the BMoL: aside from killing law enforcement being a dumb idea in general to not draw attention to yourself, the local sheriff type hunters will literally always be the sort to get involved in cases on a local level and start hunting for themselves to protect a small town like Jody did… you’re never going to stop them popping up and you’re removing a valuable local level resource and I bet there are others like Jody who just didn’t have the misfortune to know the Winchesters who literally never fight above their weight limit but are ready for vampires to come to town >.>

I know she’s on the hitlist because she’s an associate of the Winchesters but I mean… their overall plan is STUPID if they’re going after hunter cops in general. Pfft

-

*Sam, Dean and Toni bicker entertainingly*

-

Toni argues that they NEED her so THEY don’t kill her. It’s like… on the endless infinite loops of Crypt Scene reversals, this one is Toni arguing for HER life to UNDO a brainwashing if they don’t kill her, using the keyword “you need me”, and… yeah. Same sort of deal - someone saying stuff to not get killed and there’s brainwashing involved.

-

Sam: “LORE”

-

DAY ONE

-

Remember how 11x14 is one of my favourite Sam episodes because Berens just sometimes writes the Perfect Sam, and he’s all peppy and researchy? I’ve seen literally 2 seconds of this scene and I’m like, yeah, he’s at it again.

Berens’s take on Sam is probably the interpretation I’ve funnelled into Terrible Coffee AU, mostly because I laughed SO HARD at excessively caffienated Sam in 11x14 and what it did to his personality, I decided then and there I would never write a scene with him where he hadn’t had at least 4 cups of coffee

-

Sam found a gremlin spell :D

-

Pfft they need to purify some blood to make it work. While the Bunker is on lockdown and the lights are flashing red. Dean’s even wearing a red shirt, though it’s a plaid one, because he’s in the family again unlike 10x03, and Toni’s the ~invading element~ who last episode like demon!Dean spat a load of bitter truths at Sam, did the same to Mary.

-

Aw they’re all combining their blood. They’re in like some sort of pact now, that they all at least want to live, at least long enough to try killing each other in free air. But yeah, no one of them is being relied on to be the purified one - symbolic that while they hate each other, when it comes to getting free none of them is being more self-righteous than the others, and also an admission that none of their bloods are pure enough that any of them could have lorded it over the others.

-

(Sam, of course, is working with Toni and compartmentalising everything about how she tortured and mind-raped him)

-

Brains failed, now for brawn. (Sam and Dean still being aligned this way, and each having a day to try their thing)

I hate seeing a map of the Bunker as if it makes sense, but it reassuringly magically produces a brand new wall we’ve never seen before with a convenient exit right behind it - “let’s Shawshank this bitch” - so I figure its magic is still at work. It’s brainwashed too - it doesn’t want to kill them, so it’s doing its best to help :<

They need to manually override it.

-

Dean immediately gets repurcussions for his idea by getting a shard of concrete in his eye. Probably not symbolic

-

Also they probably wasted a ton of air doing that

-

“how did this happen?” “which part?” “all of it” - haven’t hit play but cosmic consequeeeences

-

“We had Cas back, we had Mom back”… I assume Dean’s priorities have been pointed out by everyone but I’m doing it anyway. Even if you just say he’s listing them and had to go one way or the other, and “Mom” is the more surprising one, but still… Cas being got by Lucifer was like, up there with things that getting him back was like getting Mary back, in how happy it made Dean. That is a Thing.

Also belatedly had some Thoughts and came back to this point, that Amara is really the big bad of this season too, but as an abstract concept of chaos, which she represents, where her 2 actions for Dean were to give him Cas and Mary back, but between throwing Lucifer wherever to let him carry on as he liked, and bringing Mary back to get tangled in this, she creates the two heads of the end of season chaos, and both arcs (and Mary and Cas have been mirrored all the way as the two sides of this sort of looping around each other)… I guess what I’m saying is I expect chaos and I’m blaming it on her, but it’s belatedly given me a really interesting way to look at the randomness of the season.

-

Sam’s regretting things. Give him a dog. *ruffles his damp hair* He was just too optimistic for his own good. He wanted the world wide scale doing good thing, and wanted to follow along instead of leading.

Whenever I think of Sam and leading I think about boy!king Sam and the plans that were apparently there for him. He had the “I’m not a leader” arc like 6 years before Cas did, and it turned out it was all a con anyway, but the point is, Sam very very firmly does not like being put in a position of responsibility, probably has season 2-3 trauma related to it, since it was how he first died, and then how Ruby met him, swearing loyalty to him as if he would be that leader…

Ironically in 12x14 and Berens knows this full well as he writes Sam saying this, Sam took control and leadership of the situation and crisis-managed it all the way through to a dead Alpha vamp, getting the hero shot and everything, but he still blamed the BMoL over and over that they were the ones who did all the hard work, and turned to them for guidance, instead of seeing what he did there.

As Leviathan!Dean once said, but, uh, reapply this to being a GOOD leader, they’re strong and smart and so on… He just went to the end that it was a perfectly good opportunity to subjugate the weak (which is what the BMoL want) and of course Sam would rather not do that :P

-

Cup of Tea no. 2

-

Oh crap, they’re have a Moment about how they want to die, talking about how they didn’t imagine it being this way because, well, who plans to be murdered by their own Bunker

-

I don’t think Dean plans to die this way any more

-

Did Dean just….

he did

-

Toni hates the Americans

-

YEAH DEAN

He’s gonna remember that forever.

If he’s not dead and tbh if he is he just died happy

-

Having an explosion in the Bunker was a terrible way to use up all the oxygen

YAY Dean did the thing and all the smoke is clearing

I suppose because this is on the CW Dean doesn’t stumble in with a massive boner from finally getting to use it

This was already a symbolic victory for the crazy American way of hunting.

-

Oh dear, it’s Mary.

-

She is covered in blood and just walks up to the door, and Jody’s like… okay I guess this is what happens with the Winchesters.

I think 12x06 softened her up too much to the idea they just show up covered in the last hunt and want to watch TV

-

Omg GARTH IS ALIVE. For now?

“You and Bess need to get someplace safe” :3 Thanks for looking after them for me

I mean now Eileen’s dead and Garth is still alive I feel sort of bad for using his life to bargain with. Hence hoping he’s mystery guy.

-

Nyoooom

-

oh that was a cruel fake trail of blood.

I mean real blood but fake anyone got killed because Jody is upright and Alex is next to her and Mary’s just got a bleeding nose and a smirk while being wrapped in rope.

“Hello boys”

-

Heee Alex and Jody took down Mary and they’re being proud of each other for doing it

I love them so much so I am in absolute terror that one or both of them dies

-

oh dear Dean’s stuck in a room with Jody and Mary and she’s taunting Jody for playing mom to Dean - 9x19 comes immediately to mind, and Momma taunting Jody for doing the same to Alex, which is how she got her in the first place. And Mary’s tied to a chair and all she’s got is the same demon!Dean thing from 10x03 to snark at Dean and tell Jody she can have him.

Honestly, Dean’s adapted a lot very well to even survive watching Mary say she doesn’t want him to his face.

He doesn’t look HAPPY but he didn’t like, burst into tears and/or storm out the room

“What’s the matter, Dean? Am I too different from the Mary you know? Or too much the same?”

The whole messed up family thing in one go here >.> Mary mirroring Dean as demon!Dean having a dark side that renounced his family and claimed to have always been this thing, and Mary doing the same…

-

Lol Mary’s hiding behind “inpenetrable psychic walls” - that’s not the metaphor the Bunker was warning about us or anything, OR anything deeply symbolic about all the character stuff for Sam and Dean where they hide behind walls of “the story became the story” and all that. Looks like maybe this is how Dean is forced to tell Mary all the dark horrible truth about her deal and all that we saw in the script they teased? That he has to try and find a way to ease her out from behind it, maybe taking a few scratches and shrapnel in the eye to get there, but… Can he grenade launcher through it with his words??

-

“They can’t be torn down with grenades”

Dean is too sad to even do a “watch me try”

-

Random hunters!

-

And Walt and Roy!

-

“No hard feelings” yeah it’s much easier to understand when Sam’s alive and that was 7 years ago and honestly so much character growth since then or something

Nice demonstration of putting aside bad feelings to work together

-

Dean leaves Sam to do the big presentation and Sam stumbles over introducing it as a personal problem he and Dean have ended up with, but then suddenly drops into inspirational speaking about “our people”, taking on the burden as a leader :D

(I mean that’s like the one thing they told us in PR but it was “sam n dean” and look I’m really proud of him okay? Berens writes a Sam I love)

Sam also admits, in front of Walt and Roy even, that he was one of the hunters who messed up and were suckered in by their flashy tech. Admitting that the current terrible scenario is his fault again, when that’s what they originally killed him for - whatever was on the hunter grapevine about what Sam Winchester had done…

-

blah blah America is great land of the free etc *Sam finishes the speech with an American flag flying behind him*

-

But I mean good laying out of the philosophies of what they see hunting is really all about - the whole cops and robbers thing Sam talked about in 12x14 but thought the BMoL could help with that instead of seeing they weren’t going to be anything like what he idealised about the job.

And he asks them to follow him :’)

-

I hope the near-death experience made Dean change his mind about dying bloody too

-

Dean’s so proud

Me too

-

Oh no he’s sitting it out. Literally because he blew his own fucking leg up.

-

I’m sitting this out too… I’m in too much pain to continue doing anything useful right now

-

Cup of coffee no. 1

-

Morning! So Sam gets his big character growth moment to maybe not mess up leading a thing this time (people are going to die but they know that… more alarmingly, Jody’s going with them >.>) and Dean’s saying behind to fix Mary. He gives a speech to Sam about doing that which sounds almost exactly like the sort of thing Sam was saying about demon!Dean - if there’s any of them still in there they’re going to find it and bring them back.

The Mary stuff has always been emotionally more on Dean’s side just because Sam would be perfectly content for her to exist and see what happens (which is probably an unspoken part of how the BMoL suckered him in that he didn’t mention in the big speech to the other hunters) - he gets the external evil to fight, something which helps fix his and especially Mary’s mistakes by taking down the operation, while Dean deal with Mary.

It only just occurred to me typing this, even though I’ve had like 14 hours since I found out what the plan was, that that puts Sam in a Ketch-ish direction if he’s going to be anywhere predictable. I’m still torn about this because I want Sam to kill him for Eileen but Mary’s got a personal beef too and I’d honestly be sort of confused if despite being the least-most-invested in killing Ketch, Dean doesn’t get pitted against him, partially because this is The Raid pt.2 (this time the hunters doing exactly what the vampires did when they were all being killed off) and partly because stuff just kind of happens to Dean more. But it’s entirely unfair of him to hog ALL the emotional catharsis if he’s got Toni and Mary with him trying to fix Mary, and then ALSO has to deal with an unexpected Ketch

-

Oh dear, Alex just told Jody to kick it in the ass while heading off to a safe house with Donna. It’s sort of the show generic rallying cry because Kim Manners, but it’s also the Ellen and Jo bye bye phrase, and I don’t like this. I have suddenly remembered I am very very worried about one or both of them, and Alex unfortunately still don’t have much point to be in this episode except it’s weird to pretend Jody doesn’t have a family just because the actresses need herding, Claire’s purposefully driven off into the sunset so doesn’t seem to be a part of this, and that leaves Alex here to either kill or react to Jody being killed.

-

Sam and Dean do the bitch/jerk thing which in a show where there was actual threat to either of them dying would make them having a “don’t die pls” farewell unnerving for the exact above reasons, but just makes me feel like everyone’s having tearful goodbyes to try and pretend the stakes are equally high - at least, the characters think so - to obscure killing off Jody.

-

The BMoL have Sam and Dean on their board with “ELIMINATED” underneath them. Losers.

Aaaah I forgot Claire was a potential target though. The WORST thing they could do is kill her off-screen without ceremony and let Jody and Alex find out because Jody bursts into the control room and sees Claire’s picture with “ELIMINATED” under it

-

Oh nope Ketch is getting nervous about where his asset is so he gets the “keep it between us” info that Mary’s in Lebanon, Kansas, aka time for Ketch to not be around to get killed in the base (making it infinitely easier to raid for everyone else) and for him to go exactly where I assumed he would.

-

Sorry Sam, you get the second hand reassurance that Ketch paid for it >.>

-

Nighty night, Dean and Mary :D I’m surprised they didn’t just say African Dream Root but I suppose the BMoL have had time to develop these technologies and magical chemistry that makes the stuff work, and dream root does come with the problem that you can literally kill someone in one of the dreams, it’s so real, and tidying up all the lore on how to do this sort of thing would make sense if they wanted to not have to deal with any odd plotholes from that. Using electrodes and stuff to link Dean and Mary connects them without the basic way dream root does it, polyjuice potion style, so theoretically neither of them should have control over the other, although Dean’s entering Mary’s head?

-

WHERE’S THE SOCK MONKEY? INACURRATE. FAKE.

Oh well, I suppose there’s some sort of weird symbolism sticking Dean in that chair to wake up but without Dean’s sock monkey it just doesn’t feel real to me.

-

I suppose it could be any old day of the week not like dropping Dean directly into the scene in 1x01, since it’s daylight beyond the windows, so perhaps Mary has been tidying and Dean’s sock monkey is in his room where it belongs and it just happened to be on the floor in 1x01 because she hadn’t tidied that day >.>

-

Dean whatever you do do not pick up the tiny Sammy. He’s very cute but I have a bad feeling about randomly appearing babies.

Oh it’s so weird to regress Mary back to the Mary she was stuck at the whole time of the show for 11 seasons. I mean MARY said she was stuck there in 12x03 as well but her surface actions have all been really different, obviously. And at this point… Dean looks stunned to see her and I don’t think it’s just because it’s the “wow Mom” shock he would get all the previous times, but now, FINALLY looking at her as someone who she USED to be…

Oh no he’s so small.

This is what he looked like when he wore the “I wuv hugs” shirt. He’s seeing it from the other side now.

Dean could pick HIMSELF up.

Oh noooo he’s eating PB&J I didn’t sign up for this.

I was expecting him to do this but I was not expecting it to be Dark Side of the Moon over again instead of 1x01. I thought he was going to go do something similar to Sam in the vision Azazel showed him in 2x21, but I suppose the point is that they return to the most important moment to them, and for Dean it was eating PB&J with his mom. It’s utterly tragic that Dean and Mary have the same Heaven memory but from different sides, because one of the worst  things about Heaven is the isolation - if you don’t know to start pressing on the walls looking for roads or loose threads, you can stay in a dream for eternity, and Mary and Dean might be living the exact same moment over and over again, but without each other… I’m not saying they should be soulmates, I’m saying Heaven should be more like what Ash made of it without the sneaking around and needing an advanced understanding of quantum physics or an angel to tell you what to do to start hopping between Heavens.

Of course put too many people together and they start talking and questioning and it’s easier to keep them content if they don’t have the ability to think about their situation deeply and philosophically, but are drugged up in their Heaven dream with happiness and mindless contentment living over their best times again.

And now Dean’s stuck on the outside looking in of the same moment just as Sam was 7 years ago (you know maybe last night I was wondering if we’d come back here because I was thinking Roy and Walt were a very obvious clue… This is what happens when  you take 14 hours off)

-

YEAH JODY. FUCK THE LAW. RUN A GUY OVER. SHOOT SOMEONE.

LOL Roy and Walt are driving Gadreel’s car

-

Of course in the way the show endlessly loops around itself, what Dean is doing, especially the sitting opposite Mary while her brain is hacked thing, is 9x10 again. Toni is Crowley but this time Dean is going in himself.

-

“You’re choosing this” *Dean is horrified* *has only just gone through this with Cas last year* He hates that anyone would choose not free will because, well, contradiction. But Mary has regressed back to how she would have been in Heaven - living in the dream and not really able to think about what’s outside herself, and so the choice to stay is very easy: abstract pain and harsh reality, or just not thinking about it. In a way it’s almost like trying to right what she feels was done wrong to her - all those gifsets comparing it to Buffy talking about how she didn’t ask to be brought back and how she had been happy in Heaven. To Mary, THAT was the violation of her free will…

“I hate you”

Aaand Dean reaches the most dramatic part of HIS character arc relating to Mary.

Ironically one of the B99 episodes I caught up while laying around like a dead fish yesterday included one where Holt got annoyed Amy wouldn’t stand up to him even after he lost her favourite pen, and eventually wound her up enough to make her yell at him and dare to disrespect her superior officer (… to an Amy degree anyway :P) and, yeah. Same deal; Dean’s been completely INCAPABLE of expressing anything negative to/about Mary, and even the argument in 12x14 was more a sort of downwards bump in this relationship, because within the episode he decided to reconcile with her *just* because she was Mary, and of course the argument was not as stark and final sounding as “I hate you” - reconciling with her after was just putting that aside in order to keep her around, not any sort of conclusion to this fight.

-

lol getting some more use out of the sci fi corridors to randomly mimic the opening of A New Hope, though the BMoL are literally “the empire” and the American hunters are the “rebels”

-

oh I think Roy or Walt is already dead. Lol. Sucks to be them.

(they DID just think they were doing what was right in 5x16 but still. They’ve been a statisticaly anomoly to be someone who killed a Winchester and lived to tell the tale (I suppose the lady from Wishful Thinking as well but she was as much a victim of the spell as anything so it doesn’t… count…?? I suppose the people from Mystery Spot who helped kill Dean all those 1000s of time as well :P))

Anyway being a redshirt on this mission gets them killed on the Winchesters’ behalf so fair’s fair

-

Oh boy here’s the stuff from Dean’s confrontation with Mary, and aside from squeezing her eyes not to listen it’s completely one-sided as Jensen delivers the sort of Dean monologue which of all the monologues which should have got him an Emmy already, this is the best. This is terrible :D

He’s using instead of “we love you” truths to get to her, the HoRRIBLE truth that she’s been owed THIS ENTIRE TIME

Anyway he’s blaming his whole tragic backstory on her instead of Azazel, because the story has become the story that even after 4x03 Dean’s managed to keep Mary pretty much exactly on the pedestal he always kept her on rather than confront that she is the root cause of his angst, which involves her death… He’s letting go of everything. Seeing her saying she wants the best for him and will keep him safe, but he knows she’s saying this having ALREADY made the deal, and that her entire happy life with her kids was ALWAYS a sham because she ALWAYS knew something bad was coming, but while she was living like this she put herself entirely into that dream to ignore it.

“You left us, ALONE, because Dad was just a shell” holy crap the show is actually OVER, what’s even left to SAY

I know when Mary came back, around this time last year we were screeching about the development he’d be offered by this, by finally getting to confront his family history again and get to be at peace with the way he was raised and all that… It’s gutting to watch it in real time though

“I had to be a father, and I had to be a mother”

holy shit I wish I could send this scene back to season 10 me to see :D Like, right after 10x03. Because the character thread in Dean I’ve been following the entire time I’ve been in fandom has been waiting to see if this would ever get resolved well, after 10x03 where demon!Dean blurted out similar to Sam but from the worst possible place, at HIS lowest point. (This is not Dean’s lowest point. Lowest point for his relationship with his mom, but higest peak he’s ever stood on for his own personal strength. Holy crap I’m proud of my boy.)

(The phrasing here is all kind of reminiscent of 10x05’s song about John and Mary and it’s making me laugh inappropriately because the start of season 10 nailed all this so much)

And the thing is by setting this all here in the Dark Side of the Moon day it’s a completely timeless moment - like sure there’s some vague outside stuff going on like it’s BECAUSE of the BMoL but Dean’s ONLY talking about their history, their past, how his life was all the time since ever, and the historical facts of Mary’s life. Any time since 5x16 they COULD have pulled the trigger on a scene like this, because all they needed was a run up to get Dean in the right mood to say it all. Of course this is the end result of a massive, at least 4 years project to tear Dean down and build him back up and have his character development go on an absolutely incredible journey… At this point I feel like the sports commentator yelling encouragement on the final lap before an absolutely record breaking victory.

“I couldn’t do it - and you want to know what that was like?” YES PLEASE KEEP TALKING

Dean lists all the shit that’s happened to Sam like the bitter Sam!girl he is and says “all because of you”

I think at this point I just want to look back at 1x09, where Mary as a ghost goes to Sam, before almost any of this happens except Jess dying and the horrible upbringing, and says “I’m sorry” because she KNEW what she’d done to him, and she died guilty about it. She said in 12x02,

MARY: And when we do find Sam… how am I gonna face him?  
DEAN: What do you mean?  
MARY: That yellow-eyed thing would never have come for him that night if I… I started all of this.

but with all the massive miscommunication themes she didn’t go talk to Sam when she should have - when he came to her in the end of the episode and hugged her, she should have apologised there, and made a start on it. And if not then, then in 12x03, although I’m feeling like from the moment she cut her hair it was too late and she was already avoiding who she had once been, chopping off the style associated with herself as their mom and stepping into what would become this demon!Dean-like brainwashed Mary. I suppose it makes sense to say in 12x02 she raised the problem that she had to face sam somehow, and she DIDN’T and then we got 12x03, the mirror episode to this one on this side of the story (and it feels like Berens has made one of those clear lines through the season, with 12x14 being mirrored on the other side of this episode, in the way Robbie owned season 9 - so like I hand season 9 to Robbie, I’m giving Berens season 12 :P Good work on all this, sir.) In 12x03 Mary is faced with the haunted house full of mirrors to exactly what she’s NOT seeing here - Sam as the burned, soulless doll in a crib, the object the demons passed around, and eventually was nothing but a hollow person, as Dean ends it on describing that Sam lost his soul. And for Dean, she sees the little boy, and she hasn’t moved past that, but Dean had to tell her from the moment she died he wasn’t that any more - he was the parent of the family. She’s got her family regressed here again, because confronting it in 12x03 just made her run away. And this is as far as she’s run, through the season, literally just running on the spot in this exact place.

Outside Mary is crying, but inside Mary is refusing to show anything. Maybe it’s just because where her consciousness is - she won’t cry on the face Dean can see. He’s leaking tears in the dream but not on the outside. But yeah, she can pick one (1) set of tear ducts to angrily repress. Because at the end of the day, Mary has always been the one more like Dean.

Dean FINALLY gets through the “i hate yous” he’s always needed to say to get back to “i love you”

*slowly sinks underneath the blankets* Yeah, saying “I love you” to Mary is the only way he’s ever been able to get it out before - the speculation being that once he’s worked through his COLLOSAL issues with his parents he might be able to say “I love you” more casually to others because he’s at peace. I can SEE him settling into being at peace now, which I think is all that Amara INTENDED when bringing Mary back, but obviously the MASSIVE repercussions going on outside their little insular family bubble.

And Dean forgives her. And says on the other side of this, they can rebuild their family and make it work. AAAAAAH.

(AAAAAAAAH)

Finally he gets to the “but I need you to fight”

“Mom I need you to see me” Oh god this is so good and painful

Mary’s crying on the inside too! But in this case it’s good because that’s the part of her that can see Dean

And we’re back to mirroring the start of the season, the very opening scene, but this time Mary recognises Dean and gets to say his name first, instead of Dean crashing out of the trees at her, yelling “Mom”, and getting his ass handed to him :P He had to tell her who she was, but this time he told her who HE was. And NOW she sees him, now he took down every single wall between them.

-

LOL Oops bye Toni nice knowin’ ya except for all the times you were terrible.

If Dean had trusted her - and if they’d changed the freakin LOCKS again - she might not be dead.

Ketch does the thing again where instead of just killing his targets, he wants to talk to them, so he wakes Dean up instead of just slitting his and Mary’s throats while they’re unconscious.

-

I suppose now it’s on Mary to wake up and save Dean

-

I was torn on who needed to kill the dark mirror of John more, but honestly, Dean’s done, came out of the oven perfectly risen and smelling great, so he does not need to reject John. He sees John accurately and describes him in that speech in such a way… His memory doesn’t have to haunt Dean, and he’s forgiven Mary too.

(And we never mentioned the cupids. Pfft.)

-

christ, Dean’s being given the Swan Song beatdown with his leg not working. For once he fights back because Ketch is absolutely not a loved one, but he’s completely outmatched, and Ketch is enjoying punching him.

He says Mary said absolutely nothing about Dean - Dean knows from being in Mary’s head how she DOES care about him, and that she was being brainwashed - he doesn’t know for how long… Point is, these words can’t hurt. He already made his peace with Mary too.

-

I think Dean just threw Ketch through the SW DW table, which is hilariously dark about their legacy >.> It’s more about in the contacts they build outside themselves, and the WORK they do, than anything they write on a table - shots of Sam and Dean thinking about the world while sitting alone in the bunker or in/on the car are often very sad about how isolated and alone they are.

Thinking of which, we’re rapidly running out of episode for me to be worried about Jody in.

-

Ahaha Ketch brought a gun to the fight. He says he’s not stupid after Dean points out how stupid he was, but he’s got his back turned to Mary, and Dean’s now in exactly the same place SAM was in 10x03 after the demon!Dean chase, where Cas suddenly came out of nowhere and grabbed Dean.

Oh Dean flinched, he had been watching Ketch. Nice surprise. Mary’s back :D

Dean hobbles over to stand at her side.

“I knew you were a killer. You both are.” “you’re right.” Yeah, Dean n Mary are a pair aren’t they :P Both been through this same arc now. Dean owns the description but I think he has a very different definition than Ketch, for all people tell him that he’s a killer. He can kill things for his job and when it needs to be done, but that does NOT mean he’s a psychopath like Ketch. And Mary has a heart too and chose the right side.

-

Jody pls don’t stand with your back to the open door - this is literally how that random no name got killed in 12x14 and I really really don’t like you not covering your back, especially when you’re a cop, and even when you think you cleared this place.

-

Oh they all survived. Sam got the news about Lucifer, decided to pass on working with a maybe lesser evil to deal with a bigger one. Jody saves his bacon with the big kill shot.

-

Where does Dean even get prescription painkillers. I suppose he’d have got some when  he broke his leg but aside from that it’s pretty much up to them to work out how much to medicate themselves by whatever illegal means off-the-grid people can fake prescriptions or health insurance. Also America’s healthcare system is terrible because it seems like an entire adversity all by itself to their lives, while in a free healthcare country… yeah, not so much a big deal :P

-

Mary’s got the season 7 Cas guilt now - everything that happened is her fault, she feels. I mean she certainly really helped the BMoL get a foothold and so on although they seemed pretty intent to come on over whether she had anything to do with it or not. But the broken family relationships, yeah, she ran away >.>

-

“What if he can’t forgive me?”  
“Mom. You don’t have to be scared of me”  
*Winchester family sandwich*

I think I’m starting to cry at this show way more often than I used to but oh my god I’m so happy for Sam right now. He misses the entiiiiiiiiire thing but the point he made back at the start of the season is he just wanted Mary THERE and her problem is she was TERRIFIED of him, and having the whole equivalent drama to what Dean just went through with her, but if she knew Sam, that’s not him. He zenned out in season 5-7 and has already recovered from like, the whole thing, and piled on totally different trauma :P His arc was so important to resolve to the story they already completed the arc in Swan Song, and it wasn’t about Mary but it WAS about peace with himself, and of course all done with external actions and plot drama while Dean had to deal with the internal stuff, literally going inside Mary’s head to sort it. Anyway point is Mary doesn’t need to be scared of him because there’s nothing to be scared of. It’s literally as simple as he wants his mom, should she happen to be here. Unlike Dean’s entire character arc since season 1 still having been unresolved. And the heart of it was stuff that was obvious since season 1 or the first episode, but Sam got his resolution in season 5, while taking us back to that season 5 moment, showed how Dean did NOT get his resolution when he needed it, because it was never JUST about sam but his entire family.

I wonder how he’ll be next season, no matter if Mary survives it or not.

-

Thinking of which, now Berens has finished writing season 12 for us, I suppose Dabb has a whole bucket of fuckery waiting to throw us into season 13.


	23. 12x23

Sucks to be you lot, I got nearly a week less hiatus than you to think about this

(Oh god, hi it’s Monday evening after the episode and I’ve finally made it through a day without a bizarre dizzy spell and limbs made of solid lead. Time to watch this >.>)

expectations: Mittens told me she loved it and she’s my barometer so I’m tentatively hoping that it works :P

Also whatever happens, 13x04 or thereabouts is going to be a fucking Scooby Doo episode so there’s no way literally anything happens here that won’t be better in 4 episodes.

-

I feel like I don’t any anything snarky OR clever to say about the opening montage, which is ominous. About my brain, I mean. Season 12 has been a wild ride.

It’s also possible I entirely transcended after the hug in 12x22 and don’t actually need anything from the show any more, like, Sam and Mary are happy, Dean’s all better and so things will clearly eventually work out with Cas, like… I don’t even need to see that to know it happens :P

(I mean I’d have HATED the show to end here because AAAH CAS but just assuming he’s fine, this is how it goes now Dean’s ticked “parent issues” off his emotional burden and is basically just left with “i’m gay for the angel help” on there :P)

-

CAS! Hello! He’s enjoying the view of the lake.

Kelly gives us a fake-out “prayer” where it turns out she’s blaspheming.

I would have no idea if this is important or not for later because even with 12x19’s great work we really don’t have a strong measure on Kelly as a character as we should have, except that she was originally devout or going along with being devout. She now thinks her baby is a God and if she’s taking the original God aka Chuck’s name in vain, then yeah. (Also important for Cas, I suppose considering his much more complicated personal relationship with Chuck aka God)

I like it because it makes her position in this all the more interesting because she seems to be asking for help but it turns out she is asking for the strength not to kill “Sven” and if she was really thinking she’d burn down an IKEA, that’s using the nephilim’s power for harm, because she’s 110% capable of grabbing Cas, dragging him back to IKEA, and making him set the whole thing alight for her.

Since it’s the opening line of the episode, the whole “not what it seems” element, especially showing her as vulnerable and devout, immediately re-casts her as angry and violent and blasphemous… Obviously it turns out to be on a hilarious level but like with many many things I talk about, the initial suggestion was an honest plea for help. And though it’s subverted, what does it say about the actual relationship with God, and how she feels… I mean she was asking for help so that means she feels she doesn’t need any help from GOD, just help from this Sven

Also the fact this means they went IKEA shopping is pretty hilarious to me all by itself because Cas and regular human activities. I would assume Cas is indulging her whims for the baby whether he thinks it will kill her to give birth or not, if he’s mostly in control of his thought processes and is in general behaving like Cas except for the override switch being thrown on priorities.

Remember back in 12x17 where I was talking about how Kelly would be so much more interesting if Dagon had let her decorate a room in their abandoned hovel of the week? I would still have loved to have seen that version but once again Dabb and I are on a wavelength because there’s no way this wasn’t already in the pipeline when I was saying all that, so I imagine he got quite a kick out of reading it on my blog, knowing what was to come. I was even thinking she’d paint it yellow. Anywho, as I was saying there, the uncanny valley of making a beautiful baby room in such a location is beautifully jarring and creepy and everything about her trying to treat this as normal and to make the world ready for him in this very specific mundane way, when there is no way in a billion years she could make the world ready for him considering what he means to this world.

-

Oh no I hit play and Cas said he was good at following orders. I’m pretty sure that’s the exact opposite of what he is, but he THINKS he is, or at least thinks that he was MADE to follow orders. Question that this episode may or may not answer: if a being is designed to be the perfect order-following drone, and then attempts IKEA furniture, will it succeed? More importantly, even if it’s actually terrible at following orders when it’s making emotional calls, will the simple morality-free consequences of building an IKEA thing make it easier and give it one easy thing to do in its life when it’s never had it easy before to follow orders without making concerned calls of its own based on its better judgement, or will it somehow fuck up the furniture anyway because it thought there was a better way to do something?

Is this possibly a metaphor

-

Kelly is angry because she knows she’s going to die and wants to teach the baby to ride a bike and get married… Look, you really have a skewed idea of what he’s going to be ALLOWED to do. Even if he grows up at a normal speed, if he’s left with his powers, I doubt he will ever have a free afternoon to learn to ride a bike in peaceful safety.

-

“I will give my life for your son. And I will raise him - ” *pauses immediately to scowl at the blatant awful contradiction*

-

“- and I will make him someone you will be proud of”

the other thing is I just can’t imagine Cas teaching anyone to ride a bike and I am not sure he has entirely thought this through, because I DO have absolute faith in Cas that if he was allowed and everything went in this saccarine way he would do his absolute best for the kid and raise him perfectly but dear god that means Cas will feel a burden like he has never felt before to learn how the hell to ride a bike and impart that knowledge to a kid on training wheels, and at this point we get so deep into an incongruous mental image I am pretty sure I’m imagining a total AU Cas

on the other hand several watching notes ago I visualised Cas’s perfectly normal house in suburbia where he’s hidden stuff like the demon tablet, first blade, and whatever the hell it was in season 12 that made me conjure this image up in the first place, and now I think Cas would obviously move the kid there to grow up, and the fact that he hasn’t yet is probably mostly because he’s a little nervous about what would happen if a nephilim touched the demon tablet.

see there’s a secret continuity to these notes

The other thing that makes me convinced the baby will not be allowed to live a normal life is not because its powers are too great to be left alone but because if it’s with Cas, he’s such a fucking beacon of madness and drama from the rest of the world that he’d have that baby in a baby pouch on his chest, running around smiting stuff, all year long :P Again, getting to the point of a ridiculously incongruent mental image.

This world is engineered towards freedom, not peace, and Cas was the one who by being bad at following orders, made sure it was so. Now he more than anyone pays the price for that

-

Omg talk about multi-layered. Dean telling Mary about how Crowley is so hard to kill he’s like a cockroach, and he’ll believe it himself when he sees the body, and burns it. Obviously you got salt n burn of a bad guy, and hunter’s funeral of someone he cares about. Which would he give Crowley? All surface stuff Dean wants to indicate at this point is that Crowley’s an idiot who somehow got tangled up in Lucifer again and made him their problem, AGAIN, and basically he has no reason to admit his fondness for the King of Hell to his mom who barely gets the situation, and Sam who mocks him about the summer of love at any given opportunity but still probably doesn’t *get* what that was for Dean, and really doesn’t like Crowley all that much, still, after all this time.

-

It belatedly occurs to me that Sam forcing out a thanks he mostly means but hates saying to Crowley in 12x15 was a lot like Dean trying to thank Ruby in 4x09 and knowing he actually is sort of grateful but you know… not pleased about her one bit :P

-

*interlude that allows me to hit the 5 minute mark as we recap Crowley not being dead* He mimics Dean in 4x01 crawling out of his grave, with rather less bizarre sex appeal.

(… I have no idea but Jensen Ackles can make literally anything sexy.)

Also the music is clearly making a mockery of him doing that, like, it’s just too overdramatic, while with 4x01 of course the whole thing was treated with the respect and importance it deserved. If Dean had resurrected with the exact same motions it would have been a comedy

-

I dislike the five minute mark intensely.

-

I’m just going to assume she’ll resurrect herself quietly without a fuss once Lucifer’s gone, and go hide out until this is all over, maybe do that spell to punt herself back to the 1400s like she wanted to in 11x22

Hope she has fun on a second time over.

And avoids literally all of this crap

-

There’s a diamond-ish pattern on the wall in the room - fancier than normal diamonds because Lucifer isn’t just a regular demon >.>

-

Oh dear he’s waving around Rowena’s voodoo doll now. The big black heart patch is even more relevant.

-

You know I think Sam is genuinely mourning Rowena, all his expected Lucifer panic aside

-

This place Cas and Kelly are holed up in really really looks like places I saw in Scotland when I was visiting. I may be mourning Rowena.

-

As I was saying to Mittens I think 12x13 is supposed to be the episode that tied up all their ends and should have been her true farewell episode wrapping up all the MacLeod family drama which truly started in 9x21 shortly before Rowena was introduced in season 10… Buuut they made such a hodge podge of the story I can’t even remember without checking what else was in it except for 3 brief interludes about Kelly, which was nowhere near enough to rob all the time from Gavin and Rowena getting a good story, so… I’m confuzzled.

-

Meanwhile, Cas is being Cas about childrearing. He says everyone poops but HE doesn’t poop - the baby may poop if it’s more human in physiology, but that’s not actually a 50 50 chance if it turns out to be more angel than not, and it’s certainly so powerful what’s left for the human side of it… i guess except for pooping, until it’s old enough to have actual working empathy and reason to discover if it’s got free will and compassion

-

It did something to the truck through Kelly but to my great disappointment there’s no Dabb vs cars pay off and it makes the truck magic. It just briefly holds the power until they’re not looking, then it dribbles out and floats off to cause trouble elsewhere

-

“Lucifer’s right,” Dean says, and probably sacrifices like 3 sanity points to say it (we’re doing Call of Cthulu this rewatch instead of D&D I guess?)

It’s a fair point that they’re really playing on the wrong board here; they can deal with a human problem like the BMoL. A little blood and tears, but they conquered it and the 3 of them solved their family drama and everything’s right again. (I assume someone gave Mary the “It’s okay you were brainwashed when you killed all those people, it totally doesn’t count” speech)… But yeah they don’t know how to find Lucifer, their plan is a vague “find Cas” and Dean seems to be relying on making Cas do what they want (he’s good at following orders >.>) rather than wrangling the larger problem. Sam says they can hopefully siphon off the baby’s grace but if not… they find something else, again, vague and again, no resources to do it - to be clear, they have at the moment, no way to find Cas, no way to kill Lucifer, and no way to deal with the baby if their desperate way doesn’t work, and dealing with Cas is a pretty desperate option too, to make him do something when again Dean said “Team Free Will” to him last time they had a real talk, and, yeah.

-

“I always wanted to punch the devil in the face” I love Mary Winchester

-

I didn’t pause in time to tell Cas not to touch the creepy line of power that came from his truck. I assume he’s been transported to an alternate dimension that is loosely connected to his truck. Spiritually, perhaps.

-

Buffy style demons?

-

I did not expect to be at this moment as soon as we are. Seemed like a last 3rd of the episode thing, after shit had gone down,  but Cas has been thrown into angry truck verse too soon.

-

I also thought it would be pretty random but I didn’t expect HOW random and you know how I said a while back Dabb era is totally random and it’s so hard to guess anything that happens because he will just be like “Lol whatever if it gets where we want to go” - this is why I hate speculating this season :P Certain things happen *exactly* on cue and others are like, Cas probably ought not to be around for this part, let’s just… put him over here

-

Kelly to Jack - “you have an angel watching over you!” yeah like that’s not already the most corrupt phrase on the show since Mary said it to her own pregnant tummy in 5x13 right when Michael had just happened to Dean (and prompted the saying of “team free will” in the first place. I’ve been ironically using it as my Mary & her sons (and step son) dynamic tag all season because of that - to refer to the cosmic fuckedupness of their backstory with angels, Mary’s attitude towards her boys, their feelings towards her (re: 2x13 and how DEAN felt about Mary encapsulated in that comment and how Sam was left out because he didn’t know anything about Mary) and of course the fact they obtained an actual angel to watch over them who is awesome at watching over them and caring about them like Mary always wanted, and Dean was so upset she said but she DIED and he had no faith and angels weren’t even real and -

okay when I said the Winchesters were done with their story, the “and Cas” dynamic completely changes the emotional stuff they need to address and I was being pretty flippant about Dean swapping that to making out with Cas, but essentially, yeah. Kelly is showing that this exact thing is still a narratively relevant thing after Dean got some core, childhood trauma level catharsis out of Mary finally, dealing with the absolute baseline of their relationship.

This is still to go, I guess, because Kelly saying this shows there’s still some fucked up stuff the Winchesters have to deal with, and faith and angels and is a shared nightmare of a family therapy session for this squad.

-

Ahahaha Dean’s reactions are great. Just punch Crowley in the face and have a knife out in moments.

And yeah Crowley deserves that. As I said somewhere ELSE in my notes over the season, Dean had one lie left to discover, after everyone else lied to him in the second half of the season and he discovered it.

(everyone except Rowena *sobs*)

-

Sam remains beautifully in character re: killing Crowley. Dean definitely seems like he will but then in 12x19 he packed an angel blade to go yell at Cas. Not sure what level of mad and betrayed those two things compare like but Crowley’s already on a barely tolerated frenemies list when Dean isn’t compromised by the whole summer of love thing and it’s pretty easy to forget that when Crowley let out Lucifer…. So yeah he’s got a lot more to be worried about than Cas :P

-

Crowley admits he kept Lucifer out of the cage because he wanted to win - belatedly giving us the exact same motivations as Cas doing all the betraying and getting dragged off by the nephilim

-

We very belatedly get to the part of Crowley’s arc where he voices he really really hates running hell. I mean, Dabb wrote 6x04 where Crowley was immediately displeased with doing the job because he couldn’t trust anyone else to do it (the sort of people who want to run hell are… pretty volatile. And the ecosystem only supports one Crowley type personality doing well there :P) He says being in the rat made him realise he hated it, but it’s been clear since season 10 that this is where it was all going for Crowley, another plot thing that got dragged out (and is filed under my lesser complaint that they didn’t know what to do with him at the end of the season just like Cas because they both ended up having such a weird non-role in the end of the season…)

Anyway I suppose we’re getting back to that, while Cas has been on a much more well developed emotional journey since the start of season 11 so it’s less like he’s just been on ice :P

-

And Crowley bargains with closing the gates of hell, because I guess all our talk about how season 8 was all over the place with the killing hellhounds thing and nephilim and all that… It was enough to actually prompt someone to ask me if Crowley could I think, so kudos that anon if I’m not imagining it. I remember saying somewhere or other that Crowley could shut the gates of hell in an afternoon if he was fully in control of Hell because he’d have all the resources available to him. Including someone to do the trials for him so he doesn’t have to die for it :P I doubt he’ll get a chance to actually do this, but it’s nice to have a reminder, if only to bring to the surface that this has been the theme all year.

I feel like the weird spiky realm that looks freakishly expensive to film will probably be the realm we have to worry about though :P

-

*Kelly wanders around looking for Cas, also concerned about him*

-

He’s back! And he immediately lies about what happened to him, probably not to worry her, but… Yeah, something happened. Whoever he met there, he’s back and not commenting, so he’s either alive and fine despite everything, or being impersonated.

I guess it just wants to open a portal to a dimension of weird spiky demons because why not. Kelly’s labour pains are stressing the portal Cas went through, so assume birth is going to tear it open and birth a whole bunch of spiky demons on this realm to go along with the nephilim.

If anything goes remotely predictably.

-

Is Crowley about to lampshade how boring 12x08 was?

“Is this what you do when I’m not here? Type?”

You know, I don’t think Dabb likes sitting through Buckleming episodes any more than we do.

-

Uhoh, weirdness in the Pacific Northwest.

Look I spent the entire time I was facedown in a load of cushions between these episodes airing and now watching most of Twin Peaks in one go.

I also caught MORE than enough references back to it from other episodes in Supernatural to be confident that Robbie, Dabb and Edlund have been going around quoting it all the time in their episodes since the start, so there’s that. :P

-

Oh no Cas is using “James Novak” to rent the house. I suppose everyone who cares about Jimmy is at peace now but it still makes me weird to think about how that’s still legally who he is as long as he keeps hold of stuff like Jimmy’s driving licence and for all we know life savings

-

“It’s about time,” Crowley says, still lampshading how boring 12x08 was.

-

Cas is being really sweet. He took a class online to help him help Kelly give birth. He’s like… the nicest guy ever

I don’t think he’s quite twigged that humans have no idea how to do half this stuff either from a standing start…  
unwittingly walking the path of the expecting father without knowing everyone freaks out this much without the whole “helping give birth to a nephilim in the shack in the woods with no medical professionals around” side

-

Yeah the glowy thing is still there Cas… Still not telling her about it, I see. She’s as they think going to be dead in 12-18 hours anyway so no point worrying her about the fact the birth of her son is opening a portal to this-world’s-hell-isn’t-actually-scary-anymore

-

“Thank you, for everything.” “of course”

*generic exchange from the Destiel playbook*

-

He tells her a bedtime story of his vision of the Future, reminding us with the visual of the nephilim’s power creeping up his arm and taking over his eyes - and she grabs his hand again. A world without pain or hunger or want. Sounds… a bit unrealistic as he gets to a world without fear or suffering or hate - he saw paradise, which is confirming he’s doing the same thing as Mary with the “world without monsters” mantra that nearly was her total undoing. He’s got a world without suffering, just the same deal, on a bigger scale. I love love love how he’s the centre of everything - Mary sharing one side, Crowley using the same story about wanting a win in his own selfish way, and Cas in the centre with the much more deep, complex story going on utilising all of this.

-

Nyooom

-

Cas knows that motor anywhere

-

Oh dear he has his angel blade out to meet them

-

“Dean.” (Mary and Sam also walk into the hall)

-

Sam does eventually take the lead on telling Cas they seriously need to worry about Lucifer right now - a shared thing between them, I guess. Dean and Cas are hostile but Sam moves around to stand behind Cas. Dean says they’ll work through their crap later because they always do. Accepting that fights are transient parts of being a couple (uh, family) and obviously they might be mad at each other now but that doesn’t mean an end to it.

-

*Cas angrily heals Dean’s knee and I’m sad he didn’t grab his knee but amused at how pissed off Cas was because he was never not going to heal Dean when he saw he was hurt but he doesn’t have to be happy about it*

Sam takes the time to wander further into the house and Cas has to chase after him to defend the odd garden feature from him

-

Too late.

-

Oh dear it’s a tear in space and time. is it showing the future that will happen if the nephilim is born and that’s what Cas has been seeing despite describing paradise to Kelly?

-

Aww it’s just an alternate dimension.

uh

Sam and Dean relate to this because they remember The French  Mistake. Oh dear. :P I never thought that would get mentioned again.

-

“How did this get here?” Asking the real questions, Sam. You know, after the deviation to reminisce fondly about 6x15 while staring at a hole in the fabric of reality.

Cas tells them they don’t want to know what’s on the other side, but Dean says they need to. You can’t just hide things from someone because you don’t want to worry them, especially when it’s staring them in the face with a great big glowy rip in reality.

-

Oh, it’s daytime now. Guess it runs backwards to their world with timezones.

Cas has to defend that he thinks it’s perfectly okay to hang out here because the nephilim opened the portal and will close it again and he has faith. Dean is like !?!?!? okay no??

Calls him a dumbass again

-

hey it’s the guy from the 2 in 1 promo. C'mon, turn out to be Garth with padding.

-

Fuckin knew it

-

Go a year without seeing that face on our screens? Never.

-

Also let me just rewind and yell about Cas calling him a friend and Dean being grumpy about Cas having friends but listen, Cas and Bobby is the best and truest friendship on the show shut your mouth Dean.

-

you know technically Bobby is “garth with padding” in the sense that Garth metaphorically took over his role after his death, while being a lanky guy.

I’m calling that a win.

-

Correction: beret!bobby. He’s awesome.

-

Making up for being killed off-screen in the opening of Endverse

-

I love how Sam and Dean keep on trying to make Bobby know who they are even after Cas keeps on trying to explain that he has no idea who they are

-

You know Cas seeing a world that Sam and Dean never saved while he’s currently helping the nephilim be born in a way that is utterly terrifying for the fabric of their reality should probably make him a lot more nervous, but he’s fine because he has faith

for Sam and Dean, it’s a different thing to see altogether, because sure they get they saved the world and they didn’t NEED to see how awful it would be without them to know they did a good thing. But Dean literally just made peace with Mary over this and Sam seemed to as well although honestly he’s been going along with it all so much as it happens maybe he needs a great big set piece to see all this and muse on how their lives changed the world because it gives him a very external way to see and process that Mary’s deal may have sucked for them personally, and kinda damned him for a little while etc etc Dean gave her the sob story on Sam’s behalf last episode, but if he was ever going to have a similar way to be at peace with Mary compared to Dean getting the personal one, it’s revisiting the early seasons Kripke Era mytharc and asking what would have happened if it hadn’t happened.

Ironically in 4x03 Cas sets Dean on his little quest to silently observe everything with “you have to stop it” but if anything his actions set things in motion and averted this world… Quite a self-fulfilling prophecy that Heaven and Hell were so obsessed with the bloodlines and the prophecy and the blah blah blah that they managed to avert the apocalypse by trying to make it happen.

-

Blah blah nothing we didn’t already know with Mary and Kelly although nice they’re talking female character to female character >.>

Getting a bit worried they were like omg Lucifer’s coming and then Sam and Dean and Cas all go have a vacation elsewhere and leave Mary alone to defend Kelly. I suppose we know Cas comes back because there was the promo scene with him kissing Kelly on the forehead presumably as she’s dying but I didn’t analyse the video very much at ALL so I can’t really remember what else we haven’t seen as we’ve now seen all the bits I think anyone was yelling about and forcing our attention to

-

Bobby called his gun Rufus :’)

It’s angel killing bullets. :O Dean is like “awesome” and Cas side-eyes him with the best side-eyes Cas has had in years like, I was SHOT with one of those, you dick.

-

I don’t think Mary’s going to keep the hand :P

-

Oh they made it back.

-

“Are you alright?” Cas immediately asks Dean, personally, if he’s alright and Dean’s like “NO” and his voice creaks as he describes being trapped between Lucifer and Mad Max

-

“I don’t even know where to start!” yep still on with that theme from earlier. They’ve been witnesses all year, really - just showing up in episodes as events unfold, and they really, really haven’t had a handle on stuff. Even the BMoL situation played out in such a way that Mary killed Ketch and Jody killed Dr Hess and Ketch killed Mick and Toni, and Mary killed that awesome lady who attacked them at the start of the season - whether it’s the brothers specifically not being allowed to kill too many humans too causally on screen or what, combined with being witnesses to round after round of the Lucifer thing, the only “win” they thought they got was banishing him, and Crowley fucked that up too so no wonder Dean hit him

-

Oh he’s back

hi crowley

-

“Turns out I’m the answer to all your problems”

(did they seriously think he couldn’t get out of being pinned to a table with a knife and no other restraints? I mean it HURTS but it doesn’t actually incapacitate him from doing stuff like… pulling the knife out…)

Anyway didn’t we have some speculation Crowley was maybe going to dramatically hero moment the day?

(Ah maybe something silly I was saying to Mittens in 12x08 when I was joking about what could possibly happen next with the vague teasing that something ridiculous was about to happen)

-

Kelly and Mary are now BFFs and Mary is unwittingly Kelly’s hand holding friend through this. I suspect this is just to tie up some things about all the Dagon and Mary as parallel mothers that was going on at some point in 12x17 or 12x19 when she was villain monologuing

-

Is Cas going to tell her that her son is opening holes in reality? Or just whatever the plan is Crowley showed up with

-

Dean has the pre-drama chat with Sam about having faith in their family. Weirdly includes Crowley in that too despite almost killing him earlier, and adds a “sometimes” - he’s got used to rely on Crowley to want to save his own bacon via using them and incidentally saving THEIR bacon enough times it almost looks like friendship :P

(Also… summer of love.)

-

You know it was totally sweet in context where Cas kissed her on the head. Definitely nothing to actually be concerned about in this episode - the whole opening was so funny and cute with guardian angel plays at being dad but the fact he was doing it AS a guardian angel was very very clear

-

Anyway Lucifer showed up

-

Sam makes a bizarre out of left field play telling Lucifer that Chuck wouldn’t allow him to do whatever he wants to do, though 12x07 had Lucifer’s big meltdown (literally) in front of them about how abandoned and miserable he felt. Not sure if this is part of the plan or Sam’s buying for time hoping to get him ranting again.

(I mean. Lucifer is ranting again so.)

-

If there IS a random Chuck and Lucifer second attempt at reconciliation at this point I wouldn’t put it past Dabb although not currently sure what part that plays. Chuck did choose these losers to defend the planet on his behalf after all

-

You know, Lucifer thinks this world sucks. A very obvious solution is just to let him chase them around the house, then someone kick him into that portal right before Jack closes it, if he is indeed going to do that

-

“Apocalypse take two. That’s your plan.” “When in doubt, go with the classics” You know, Lucifer, did you ever ask what happened to your brother Raphael?

Cas. Cas happened to him.

-

Anyway part of the great season 6 redux. How does it go this time? Well there’s a lake literally right there and a portal full of nasties, and Bobby did some basic lore info on them so I have to assume it’s not totally random what was through there, but at least SOME of it is going to be a problem for them next year

-

“See you on the other side” yeah that’s… a thing that Dean said

-

LOL Dean and Sam turn and leg it around the house

*glances at Dabb* I worry about how much I think like him sometimes.

-

They lure Lucifer in out of curiosity. It’s power, he’s interested, and… I really hope Bobby kills him

-

“You wanted the apocalypse, you got it” this honestly seems like almost a kind way to retire Lucifer without killing him. Just shove him in a world even worse than endverse and let him have a crack at things where he’s not the biggest fish in town and has some catching up to do

-

Dean gets to shoot Lucifer a billion times with an assault weapon because, well, he already shot the grenade launcher today, he needs something more fun to do now

-

Oh dear, now he’s out of bullets

-

Lucifer really likes puching Dean in the face. He probably still feels he owes him some more face punches since 5x22

Dean is happy to volunteer his face up as a distraction, at least because Lucifer won’t kill him instantly because he prefers punching Dean and making it slow…

-

Oh wow gee doing a spell that seals the rift needs someone to stick around and -

not just do it, a life apparently. Uh, Crowley… Are you gonna do this just to spite Lucifer?

-

Sam and Dean employ the tactic of running away again

-

Lucifer teases Crowley for wanting to make it personal by not locking him away in the cage and just ending it when it should have ended.

I think personal spite is going to play a biiit of a role here :P

-

*Crowley villain monologues like a champion*

-

Time go, Sam and Dean

-

“Bye, boys”

BYE CROWLEY

Maybe

for now anyway

-

The MacLeod Family Drama definitely ended this season anyway - I do think 12x13 ought to have been a showstopper of an episode with all their laundry aired and stuff to make it fair, and of course to have resolved the time travel nonsense better

but anyway, I think Rowena and Mary have a huge thematic overlap for what they do for Dean and Crowley - it did resolve Crowley’s emotional arc in a way where rounds of villainy and winning/losing could be an eternal pattern with the Winchesters. Even if it ended badly it still ENDED and they all came to a point where there was closure of some sort. And Crowley is still the dark mirror to all this, and same for Rowena, even if she also softened to the Winchesters in the last season. (And Sam softened enough to Crowley to say thank you to him - him getting the hug and thank yous was a real doom :P)

-

*a lot of things happen very quickly to which my reaction is just ????*

I suppose Cas either had no idea what was going on and charged in to save the day when it took too long, or the nephilim sent him in to kill Lucifer because why not. Mary just got knocked out and Kelly’s glowing

I kind of feel this is Cas wanted to be there because the writing moved him there

-

CAS

Oh my fucking god remember how terrified I was last episode of Jody standing with her back to the open door because the same thing happened to that random hunter?

ALSO I tried to rewatch the season before I got sick and everything ground to a halt and all these episodes suddenly happened, and the opening road so far recapping 11 had that random angel who died and looked like Cas in the promo for 11x09 and freaked everyone out and it looked pretty much exactly like this, so if you can somehow retain the entire season in your head, uuh

Fuckin Dabb era fucking - GAH

-

Did Lucifer really just growl at Mary

Brass knuckles! Work on angels too

Repeating 12x01 where Ms Watt (rememebred her name) was so badass and unstoppable with them and kicked their butts until Mary stopped her. Mary is the unstoppable force

-

Oh didn’t want to see a random shot of dead cas not thinking about that lalalala

-

We forgot Adam

Lucifer didn’t

*swan songs Mary out of there*

Technically Michael did that to HIM but I guess flippy flippy everything’s reversed, Mary’s going to the reverse verse anyway

-

Dabb era is freaking inside out

-

Run, Mary.

-

Okay I can see what they said about Purgatory, but that is a reverse of it completely, Mary alone in a hostile land but with Lucifer instead of how Dean was with Cas, and whatever they were in season 7 and however it looked like Cas flapped off and abandoned him at the end, he wouldn’t be a threat to him

-

Sam sees the light is flashing in the house as Jack is being born, Dean is a bit distracted looking at Cas in a way that made my brain ache so much I saw stars and had to pause

-

I drank half a bottle of water and hit play and I mostly screamed at Mittens about the following succession of events in incoherent caps but my conclusion is, that long shot of Dean having fallen to his knees then falling to sit down in despair looking up while right beside Cas and we have wings and… yeah that is the Worst Shot On The Entire Show and will never ever ever be topped by anything they ever do ever again. I have seen the image that my Hell will be wallpapered with.

I didn’t even believe in Hell until just now :P

-

Anyway Sam has stuff to worry about

-

Hey look Kelly put herself to rest except for the open eyes

bye bye

now where’s the baby

-

Oh look it has adult sized feet

-

Is Sam ending the season in a room with a crib because yiiikes Dabb. Yikes. Jack is after all metaphorically connected to him strongest of anyone because of the whole original Sam arc that this season has been aaaaaaaaall about

-

Yeah he’s ending the season in a room with a giant naked baby with yellow eyes huddling by its crib

-

Anyway what the fuck.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

I don’t like being in hiatus with you all it was actually nice being horrifically ill and binge watching Twin Peaks.


End file.
